treating battlefield wounds with Sugar/Honey

[ftbear]

This article has a nice review of the use of sugar in wounds.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2956799/

[Delta_co]

Anyone who has spent any length of time in a combat zone knows, you use what has proven to work. This treatment became widespread in Napoleonic times for good reason I suspect, just like certain plants were harvested for their wound packing abilities.

We all know that sugar/honey is not a primary form of treatment, but if that is all one has, the knowledge may save a life in austere conditions when primary care is days away.

I was fortunate to have primary care only a helo ride away in my real life adventures, but knew in the back of my mind what to do once the med kit ran dry.

To ignore this body of knowledge is ignorant in my opinion. To use it without experience and wisdom is stupid.

+1 This

[barrelwrench]

I've heard of plastic wrap being used to dress wounds?

[Gutshot John]

Plastic wrap can be used to dress wounds if you don't have much else.

The use of honey was never as a coagulant. Honey was indeed used as an antiseptic. It may indeed inhibit bleeding in minor cuts, but nothing more serious than that.

The use of sugar is vastly overstated. Was it potentially used? Sure, was it widely used? Nope. Granulated sugar wasn't cheap/widely available until the 19th century, likewise if improperly administered it would create a perfect environment for bacteria.

The diabetic ulcer study mentioned above I believe is using the abrasive quality of sugar to debride the wound and otherwise lessening inflammation through hypertonicity and pH affects. Likewise the article conflates sugar with honey which are not the same. Finally it's not talking about battlefield use, it's talking about wound healing, which is definitely NOT the same as wound dressing.

[Caduceus]

This article has a nice review of the use of sugar in wounds.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2956799/

Using sugar on diabetic foot wounds? Talk about ironic...

Regarding a post a few pages, and a year, back, sugar in high concentrations causes increased urination due to a high osmotic gradient. This probably does the same with bacterial cell walls or membtanes.. This is probably why it works as an anti septic.

[Hmac]

Nevermind. I get a chuckle out of this thread.

[Sensei]

Nevermind. I get a chuckle out of this thread.

What? You don't strap packets of Domino Sugar on your AR next to your tourniquet?

[Hmac]

What? You don't strap packets of Domino Sugar on your AR next to your tourniquet?

.

[williejc]

Sugar/honey has been successful in wound treatment because the sugar molecules cause water to diffuse from inside bacterial cell to the outside. Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a cell membrane from a region of higher molecular conc. of water molecules to a region of lower conc. of water molecules. Addition of sugar lowers the water molecule conc. outside the bacterial cell--relative to inside the cell. Direction of osmosis from in to out removes enough water to kill the bacterial cells. Salt works the same way but with sodium and chloride ions and not whole molecules as in sugar.

My opinion is that sugar therapy would be useful only if other care was not available, but one would have to be familiar with a protocol other than grab the sugar bowl.

[Hmac]

That theory has been put forward relative to treatment of chronic, poorly-healing wounds. Nothing to do with an acute traumatic injury.