Use of sugar and povidone-iodine in the treatment of refractory cutaneous ulcers

Over the past 3 years, we have used a preparation of 70% sugar and 3% povidone-iodine with an improved vehicle developed by industry to treat 168 patients with refractory cutaneous ulcers. The patients presented with traumatic ulcers (70), venous and ischaemic ulcers (52), post-burn ulcers (35) and diabetic ulcers (11). Daily changes of the agent for 4 weeks resulted in rapid formation of granulation tissue, reduced oedema and cleaning of the wound. Measurement of the wound after the treatment showed 66.7% reduction in size and 63.6% decrease in depth. The global assessment of all patients was ‘good’ to ‘very good’ in 77.6%. Satisfactory clearing of bacterial infections was also confirmed. Adverse effects were observed in 10.7% of the cases (18) and most of them were transient smarting and tolerable irritation during the first hour. No undesirable effect on sugar metabolism was observed even in diabetic patients. This agent was easy to use, was very effective and inexpensive, and thus can be recommended for use in the treatment of cutaneous ulcers.