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What Are Silver Bandages For?

In the 19th century, doctors treated wounds with silver because of its effective antibacterial properties. Although silver is still used in particular circumstances, such as applying silver to hospitalized patients with wounds that refuse to heal or treating a newborn infant's eyes, antibiotics has largely replaced silver to ward off bacterial infection in the 20th century. In 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved silver-coated adhesive bandages for at-home health care.

  1. Minor Scrapes

    • Curad and Band-Aid have introduced new bandages that incorporate silver to the home health care market. People can purchase these over-the-counter bandages in various sizes and use them to treat scrapes, cuts and burns. Avoid using antibacterial products in conjunction with silver bandages because the products may obstruct the curative properties of silver. Apply the bandage directly to the wound so the silver can penetrate the skin. Because silver will kill or inhibit the spread of bacteria, viruses and fungi, silver bandages may accelerate the healing process or prevent a superficial wound from getting infected.

    Chronic Wounds

    • Hospitals use silver-infused bandages, known as Acticoat dressing, for patients with severe burns and infections that don't respond to other types of treatment. According to Government of Alberta, these bandages are coated with silver nanoparticles that approximate the size of targeted bacteria, a process invented by the Canada Research Chair in Nanostructural Biomaterials, Dr. Robert Burrell. Nucryst Pharmaceuticals, a Canadian company, first manufactured Acticoat dressing in 1998. When moistened, the silver nanoparticles activate and last anywhere from three days to a week. Although Acticoat dressing was developed for use on burns, doctors now use the silver bandages to treat foot, leg and pressure ulcers that have been resistant to healing.

    How Silver Works

    • Silver penetrates a bacteria's cell membrane, attaches itself to the cell's genetic material and disrupts the bacteria's metabolism. Because silver obstructs the growth of bacteria in several ways, the many different forms of bacteria have been incapable of building a resistance to the metal. The active ingredient in silver nanoparticle-infused bandages is a positively charged silver ion. Bacteria found in ulcers and injuries create a creamy coating, known as biofilm, which protects bacteria from the lethal effects of antibiotics. While silver salts can annihilate normal bacteria, it is unable to kill the bacteria coated in biofilm. In contrast, silver nanoparticles can penetrate this protective coating and kill bacteria in wounds.

    Silver and the Superbug

    • In the U.S. and U.K., the superbug, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA), spreads like wildfire through hospital wards, threatening the lives of patients and costing Britain's National Health Service £1 billion (euros), reports the BBC News. In 2005, Robert Strohal, an Austrian doctor who heads the dermatology department at the Federal University Teaching Hospital, experimented with Acticoat dressings on MRSA-infected wounds in two hospitals. In 95 percent of the tests, infections treated with the silver bandages had not spread.

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