Since the early 1980s a plethora of dressings has been developed to promote wound healing. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of silver based dressings and honey based dressings on cell viability.

Materials and methods
In this blinded study, keratinocyte cultures were exposed to prepared extracts of each of the following wound dressings for 40 h:

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Silver based dressings: Acticoat, Actisorb, Askina, Atrauman-Ag and Contreet.
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Honey based dressings: Melladerm gel, Melladerm mesh, Melladerm plus and Mellarsorb. Controls consisted of cells that were cultured in the same medium, and under the same conditions as those exposed to extracts.
Results
All dressing extracts had an effect on cell viability. Changes in cell morphology from different wound dressing extracts were noted and compared with control groups after 24 h of incubation.

Conclusions
In the silver based extracts group, Atrauman-silver and Acticoat had the most viable cells. For the honey based group, the most viable cells were seen with Melladerm mesh and Mellasorb. There was no significant difference between the best performing silver and honey based wound preparations with regard to cell viability.