For patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis, daily application of antibacterial honey at the exit site is not associated with increased time to peritoneal-dialysis-related infections, according to a study published online in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
In an effort to examine whether daily application of antibacterial honey at the exit site would increase the time to peritoneal-dialysis-related infections, David W. Johnson, Ph.D., from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues conducted an open-label multicenter trial involving 371 participants undergoing peritoneal dialysis. Participants were randomized to receive topical exit-site application of antibacterial honey (186 participants) or intranasal mupirocin prophylaxis (for carriers of nasal Staphylococcus aureus) plus standard exit-site care (185 participants).
The researchers found that there was no significant difference between the groups in the median peritoneal-dialysis-related infection-free survival times (16.0 months in honey group versus 17.7 months in control group; P = 0.47). For participants with diabetes, honey correlated with increased risk of time to first peritoneal-dialysis-related infection and peritonitis. There was no significant difference between the groups in the incidence of serious adverse events and deaths. Local skin reactions were experienced by 6 percent of participants in the honey group.
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“The findings of this trial show that honey cannot be recommended routinely for the prevention of peritoneal-dialysis-related infections,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the medical technology industry, and Baxter Healthcare, which partially funded the study.
