Assessment of a silver-coated barrier dressing for potential use with skin grafts on excised burns.

Acticoat burn dressing is a silver-coated dressing with antimicrobial activity purported to reduce infection from environmental organisms in partial and full-thickness wounds. Acticoat was tested for activity as an antimicrobial treatment and as an antimicrobial barrier dressing in three in vitro assays. It was found that a modified disc assay method gave false negative results but in an assay in which bacteria were inoculated on top of samples of Acticoat, bacterial numbers were reduced, over time, with all microorganisms tested. Acticoat served as a barrier for bacteria, inoculated onto it, from contaminating the surface of an agar plate under the Acticoat. The data show that Acticoat has: antimicrobial capabilities, but to be effective hours of contact between Acticoat and the microorganisms are required; and the capacity to serve as an antimicrobial barrier dressing. These findings support the conclusion that Acticoat has activity to reduce microbial contamination of wounds from environmental sources.