Benefits of Using Leptospermum Honey for Oncological Wounds to Improve Patients' Quality of Life

Problem: Management of wounds represents a major cost in health care today and significantly affects patients’ quality of life. Oncological wounds may have a delayed response in the wound healing cascade when patients require chemotherapy and radiation treatments. These treatments are therapeutic in the destruction of cancer cells but have an adverse effect on tissues and wound healing.  A surgical wound in the acute phase can easily progress to a chronic phase with inadequate wound care management (Bryant & Nix, 2007).

 Intervention: Wounds may have an increased bacterial load without showing signs of infection. Using Leptospermum honey (LH) gel to manage and control bacterial load in surgical wounds has been very effective at this cancer center. According to Molan (2011), LH promotes wound healing by: autolytic debridement, anti-inflammatory activity, anti-bacterial activity, antioxidant activity, and by stimulating cell growth for tissue repair. Through a series of three case studies of complex oncological wounds, LH gel has been applied under negative wound pressure therapy (NWPT) to accelerate wound healing. A small amount of the gel is placed under the sponge three times a week with each dressing change. Significant progress was noted using LH as an adjuvant wound care modality. Wound healing rate showed complete closure for these patients in less than two to three months. Typically, these complex oncological wounds take an average of six months or longer to heal.

Conclusion: LH gel has proved to be an effective treatment option to manage the level of bioburden level within the wound bed. Hence, wound healing time has been significantly reduced and patient’s quality of life has improved.