Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

Abstract

A Review on Antimicrobial Silver Absorbent Wound Dressings Applied to Exuding Wounds

Yadie Yang and Hong Hu

Exuding often occurs in the inflammatory stage both for acute wounds and chronic wounds. Absorbent wound dressings are specially developed and used in exuding wounds. In order to reduce bacteria and risk of infection, many absorbent dressings are impregnated with silver ions or particles which are the most widely used substance to obtain antimicrobial effects and therefore this review focuses on the antimicrobial absorbent dressings treated with silver ions or silver particles. The methods of dispersing silver in dressings include coating or spraying silver-containing solution on the wound dressing surface, padding the wetted dressing with pressure, embedding silver nanoparticles in non-woven fibers. When silver dressings absorb exudate from wounds, the antimicrobial silver will be activated and then breaks down the bacterial cell wall to kill the bacterium. Silver foam dressings and silver alginate dressings are the most popular antimicrobial absorbent dressings, which have been developed and produced by many health care companies.