O analiză comparativ-holistică asupra argintului în practica chirurgicală | [A comparative-holistic analysis on silver in surgical practice]

Abstract

Silver and silver-based compounds have been used during the millenary history of humanity in order to treat wounds, infections, ulcers, and other skin lesions due to their antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. Though lately, researchers have focused mainly on the discovery of new silver-organic compounds, through which the effects of silver could be put into evidence, in this review we demonstrated that the use of other forms of silver remains effective. Thus, the metallic form of silver and the inorganic compounds such as silver nitrate has proven to be a simple and inexpensive method and to have remarkable therapeutic efficiency in different surgical specialties: General Surgery, ENT, Gynecology, Urology, Plastic Surgery, etc. This paper can be considered to be a monograph including the most important principles of the silver-based treatment, its biological mechanisms of action at the molecular level (also in microorganisms), and its adverse reactions generated in the human body.