Treatment of burn wounds has commonly involved direct topical application of an antimicrobial composition, such as silver sulfadiazine cream, which following application is covered by fine mesh gauze strips. This procedure is commonly painful to the patient, labor intensive, and time consuming. Alternatively, silver sulfadiazine cream has been impregnated into gauze which is then applied to the wound. This method is also painful, labor intensive and time consuming. Since contamination from the surrounding environment, either at the point of application or when the strips are impregnated is possible, extreme caution must be employed to maintain cleanliness.
Recently, spray application of cream or ointment for burn treatment has been tested as a relatively rapid and painless mode of cream application. Spray application was effected by directing an atomized spray of silver sulfadiazine cream (SSD) from a conventional small rigid container of sulfadiazine at a wound area from a distance of four to six inches employing a conventional air atomizing sprayer. This mode of application, though overcoming some problems associated with direct, hand application of treating agents and treatment of wounds with impregnated gauze, is not completely satisfactory. Specifically, the air employed in the method can introduce contaminants into the spray system which, over time, pose problems of wound sepsis.
More importantly, the prior art spray method tended to be intermittently painful for the patient due to uneven discharge of SSD cream from the sprayer with resultant painful high pressure air blasts against the wound site. Because it is viscous, SSD cream did not readily flow to the inlet of the pump system, but rather as the cream in the immediate area of the inlet was drawn into the pump, a void or "rathole" containing no cream was created. During the period when the pump inlet is in such a void, air is introduced into the pump flow course, subsequently causing breaks in delivery of SSD spray and producing the above-noted painful air delivery against the wound.
Furthermore because SSD cream is viscous, the prior art spray method resulted in substantial waste of SSD. That is, not all of the cream in the rigid prior art containers flowed to the pump inlet, but rather substantial residues of SSD cream remained on the sides and bottom edges of the containers.
It has now been discovered that problems relating to sepsis during topical burn treatment can be satisfactorily overcome by means of a spray applicator system which maintains the burn agent in isolation from ambient conditions, particularly by means of a compressed air operated sanitary pump and nozzle. More significantly, it has been discovered that a conventional silver sulfadiazine cream can be sprayed upon burn wounds with minimal patient discomfort, without intermittent delivery of air and with minimal waste of the cream. Spraying of silver sulfadiazine cream on gauze is also effectively achieved by means of the present invention.