Pseudomonas aeruginosa and colloidal siver

Question

Hello,
Will it be beneficial to use colloidal silver as an adjunct to antibiotic treatment for a 4y child ?

Answer

Hello,

Colloidal silver is a solution of silver atoms in nanoparticles (nano-silver) produced by nano-technology. Nanosilver has special properties, biocide (kill microorganisms) that the drug, pesticides or food products industries seek to use and value (see Reference 1). But it also poses toxic risks in environmental health.

Historically, colloidal silver (silver solution) was used to treat various diseases since the late 19th century. Its use was discontinued in the 1940s because of the development of antibiotics and concerns about side effects including argyria (blue-gray slate color of the skin caused by prolonged treatment with silver salts) neurological or renal complications.

Since the 1990s, colloidal silver (liquid solution of nano-silver) was introduced as an alternative medicine often assigning drug qualities to "cure-all". The reality of its effectiveness remains contested although scientific studies on antibacterial effects of colloidal silver are becoming more numerous. We are currently witnessing strong resurgence of interest in colloidal silver because of the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

In the field of cystic fibrosis, a very interesting case report was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine - JRSM (see Reference 2). This article summarizes the case of a 12 year old child infected with resistant bacteria to successive intravenous antibiotics cures (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia multivorans, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia) and reached the stage of serious chronic respiratory failure leading to consider cardiopulmonary transplantation. In this situation, a colloidal silver therapy was instituted and followed by a dramatic and sustained improvement in lung function and quality of life of this child making void the proposed transplantation.

We do not have to date scientific studies to clearly define the benefits, risks and indications of such treatment. Given this uncertainty, treatment with colloidal silver seems primarily address critical situations and conventional therapeutic impasse that is to say a "compassionate" indication as the aforementioned clinical case.

Hope this answer can help.
Best wishes
Gilles RAULT, MD, Roscoff CF Center

Référence 1
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-argent

Référence 2
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2443992

05.08.2015