'Potato peel dressing': a novel adjunctive in the management of necrotizing fasciitis

Spider Bite Wound Care and Review of Traditional and Advanced Treatment Options

Background

Approaches to chronic wound care are worlds apart: In developing nations, the care of chronic wounds often involves traditional management with local products (eg, honey, boiled potato peels, aloe vera gel, banana leaves); whereas in developed nations, more expensive and technologically advanced products are available (eg, wound vacuum, saline wound chamber, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, antibacterial foam). The cost for wound care plays a significant role in total health care costs, and that cost is expected to rise dramatically.

Case Presentation

A healthy, 60-year-old man presented after being bitten by a spider 6 days earlier. He was treated and prescribed clindamycin 300 mg 4 times daily for 14 days. Despite treatment, the wound continued to enlarge, and the patient showed symptoms of septicemia. The patient was admitted to the hospital and remained for 3 days. On discharge the patient was given a prescription for doxycycline 100 mg twice a day for 10 days and instructed to use iodoform gauze to pack the wound during daily dressing changes. However, the gauze was ineffective. The patient's dressing was switched to an antibacterial foam dressing impregnated with gentian violet and methylene blue.

Conclusions

There is a disparity in available wound care product availability. Modern products may yield faster healing times with fewer adverse effects than traditional products. Products used by local healers can produce satisfactory results when more modern products are unavailable and at a fraction of the cost.

The ‘Edge Effect’ Phenomenon in Plants: Morphological, Biochemical and Mineral Characteristics of Border Tissues

The ‘edge’ effect is considered one of the fundamental ecological phenomena essential for maintaining ecosystem integrity. The properties of plant outer tissues (root, tuber, bulb and fruit peel, tree and shrub bark, leaf and stem trichomes) mimic to a great extent the ‘edge’ effect properties of different ecosystems, which suggests the possibility of the ‘edge’ effect being applicable to individual plant organisms. The most important characteristics of plant border tissues are intensive oxidant stress, high variability and biodiversity of protection mechanisms and high adsorption capacity. Wide variations in morphological, biochemical and mineral components of border tissues play an important role in the characteristics of plant adaptability values, storage duration of roots, fruit, tubers and bulbs, and the diversity of outer tissue practical application. The significance of outer tissue antioxidant status and the accumulation of polyphenols, essential oil, lipids and minerals, and the artificial improvement of such accumulation is described in connection with plant tolerance to unfavorable environmental conditions. Methods of plant ‘edge’ effect utilization in agricultural crop breeding, production of specific preparations with powerful antioxidant value and green nanoparticle synthesis of different elements have been developed. Extending the ‘edge’ effect phenomenon from ecosystems to individual organisms is of fundamental importance in agriculture, pharmacology, food industry and wastewater treatment processes.