Gold & Silver Forum - Sugar as topical antibiotic

Something I didn't know... Regular supermarket sugar is as good as bacitracin

As with any traumatic wound, the wound is first irrigated and debrided. Hemostasis is obtained prior to the application of the sugar (PI) dressing since sugar can promote bleeding in a fresh wound. A wait of 24 to 48 hours before the application of sugar is not unusual. During this delay, a simple PI dressing is applied to the wound. Once bleeding is under control, deep wounds are treated by pouring granulated sugar into the wound, making sure to fill all cavities. The wound is then covered with a gauze sponge soaked in povidone-iodine solution.

Superficial wounds are dressed with PI-soaked gauze sponges coated with approximately 0.65 cm thickness of sugar. In a few hours, the granulated sugar is dissolved into a "syrup" by body fluid drawn into the wound site. Since the effect of granulated sugar upon bacteria is based upon osmotic shock and withdrawal of water that is necessary for bacterial growth and reproduction, this diluted syrup has little antibacterial capacity and may aid rather than inhibit bacterial growth.

So to continually inhibit bacterial growth, the wound is cleaned with water and repacked at least one to four times daily (or as soon as the granular sugar becomes diluted) with more solute (sugar) to "reconcentrate" the aqueous solution in the environment of the bacteria.

Dr. Leon Herszage treated 120 cases of infected wounds and other superficial lesions with ordinary granulated sugar purchased in a supermarket. The sugar was not mixed with any anti-septic, and no antibiotics were used concurrently. Of these 120 cases, there was a 99.2 percent cure rate, with a time of cure varying between 9 days to 17 weeks. Odor and secretions from the wound usually diminished within 24 hours and disappeared in 72 to 96 hours from onset of treatment.

A CASE STUDY A 19-year-old black man was treated for a shotgun blast to the right foot. The wound went completely through the foot, creating a 2.5 cm diameter hole on the dorsum of the foot and a 5 cm to 7.5 cm jagged wound on its plantar aspect. The wound was irrigated, debrided, and packed with iodoform. A similar procedure was done on his third hospital day. On day five and following, he was treated with whirlpool and sugar/pI compound and was ready for discharge, [having not taken] antibiotics in eight days. By seven weeks, the patient was nearly healed, with healing complete at nine weeks. He had minimal scarring with no requirements for skin grafting.