A combination of a new silver chloride solution with anti-microbial characteristics and inert metals is being used in the manufacture of catheters, internal feeding tubes, dental prostheses, sutures and wound dressings.
Silver chloride is nearly insoluble but possesses anti-microbial characteristics when deposited on inert material, even in the presence of proteins that normally neutralize silver.
Medical researchers are interested in a silver chloride-titanium dioxide formula that, when compounded in plastics, helps eliminate bacteria. The plastic can be cast or extruded into surfaces for pacemakers or catheters to prevent bacterial infections.
Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah are studying the effects of a silver solution used to treat bacterial infections. The hope is that the solution can replace antibiotics, the overuse of which has lead to the rise of resistant strains.
The silver solution killed or inhibited the growth of 12 different strains of bacteria, responsible for such ailments as pneumonia, eye and skin infections and meningitis.
— The preceding is an excerpt from Silver News, the publication of Washington, D.C.- base The Silver Institute.
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