Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Apr 23, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 4, 2025 - May 30, 2025
Date Accepted: Jul 11, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Honey as A Wound Care Modality in Treating Deep Neck Space Abscess: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Deep neck abscess is a disease in the field of otorhinolaryngology—head and neck surgery—that causes significant morbidity, death, and expenditures. Treatment length, whether inpatient or outpatient, is also prolonged. Deep neck abscesses are managed with incision and drainage, abscess exploration, systemic broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment, comorbidity control, and postoperative wound care through recovery. Standard dressings for wound treatment have proven time-consuming and expensive. Honey is one type of dressing that has long been used in wound treatment for a number of body areas and disorders.
Objective:
The purpose of this study is to investigate on honey as a potential substitute for dressing deep neck abscesses.
Methods:
This is a single-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT). Randomization is done through simple random sampling. The population and sample of the study include all patients with deep neck abscesses treated at Dr. Sardjito General Hospital equipped with board-certified Otorhinolaryngologists. Patients with deep neck abscesses who were given ethical clearance are the study subjects until the sample size is reached and the inclusion and exclusion criteria are accomplished. There are eighteen subjects in each group. Participants in the research group received standard dressing in addition to honey dressing, whereas those in the control group received standard dressing alone. Pro-inflammatory cytokine and growth factors, wound size, Bates Jensen Wound Assessment Tools (BWATs) scoring, and quantitative bacterial colony identification are all evaluated and assessed. The gathered data will be documented and subjected to statistical analysis.
Results:
Data collection started in June 2024 and is likely to be completed by June 2025. A total 36 of participants have been included in this study. Data will be analyzed once data collection is completed. The analysis is estimated to start in June 2025 and will likely be published in 2026.
Conclusions:
We hypothesize that honey is a possible alternative for wound dressing of deep neck abscess.
Citation
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Copyright
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