The use of silver-zinc-allantoin powder for the prehospital treatment of burns.

We describe our experimental studies of a powder formulated to treat serious burn wounds on-the-scene. The wound powder comprises two parts silver-citro-allantoinate, two parts zinc allantoinate and 96 parts pure allantoin. The back skin of 62 rats was shaved and exposed to actively boiling water for ten seconds, resulting in third degree burns of 20% of the total body surface. Immediately, 1 ml of a culture containing 2 X 10(8) Pseudomonas aeruginosa was applied to the burn. The animals were isolated. Of the 30 control rats, six were powdered with allantoin only. Thirty-two rats were dusted with the silver-zinc-allantoin powder within 15 minutes of burning. Cultures were taken at 48 hour intervals. Eighty-seven percent of the control animals died an average of six days postburn. In the treated animals, the mortality was 15%. A mean of 27% of the applied silver (0.35 gm) became incorporated in the eschar. In all control rats, sepsis was detected under the eschar. In treated animals, bacterial concentration fell from an initial average of 5 X 10(4) at 4 hours postburn to 6 X 10(2) at 96 hours.