Clinical and histopathological evaluations of local honey application in the healing of experimental wounds in dog

Honey has been generally used in traditional medicine for healing different kind of wounds. In this research complex, the clinical and histopathological effects of West Azarbayjan non-boiled honey in healing process of surgical wounds (cuts) were evaluated. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of honey on healing time and duration of wound closing in dog. 30 dogs, each weight was almost 25kg, were divided into 2 clinical (n=10) and histopathological (n=20) groups. In each group, after surgical preparation and anesthesia surgical wounds were produced by a similar pattern and size (rectangle; 25×50 mm2) in the thoracolumbar region. Wounds on the left side arbitrary taken as treatment group and on the right side as control group. Postoperative treatment in the honey group was included daily wound irrigation with normal saline and then topical application of 20g honey. In the control group only irrigation with normal saline was performed. Clinical and histopathological parameters were evaluated in each group 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after operation. Honey caused in acceleration an healing and surgical wound closure and in decreasing the level of infection and secretion in the experiment group in compare to control group which was more significant at days 14 and 28 (p<0.05). Decreasing the area of wound during experiment in honey treated group was 11.1% more than control group. From histopathological aspect, especially from the second week on, less neutrophilic chemotaxis was found in treatment group than in the control group and in treatment group the compact connective tissue was developed more rapidly. West Azarbayjan non-boiled honey is potentially effective in surgical wound healing.