Snake Oil Bandage Claims to Electrify Wounds

The CMB PROSIT medical dressing appears at first to be a great idea. When wet, it allows current to flow through the bandage, thus killing bacteria and generally wiping out things that thrive in a damp environment. Upon closer inspection, though, the dressings, which cost around $250 for ten, seem a perfect fit for our new Snakeoil category.

First, no electricity is supplied to help fry the skin-gremlins. Instead, the CMB uses "microcurrents", 100mV/mm currents which are generated by the human body at injury sites. According to the blurb "It is believed that this flux in the local biocurrent is the stimulus to heal." [emphasis added].

So, if the microcurrents are already there, doing their anti-microbial thing, what does this dressing do? It seems that it allows this current to flow, but only when wet. I might be missing something here, but surely anything allows a current to flow when wet. Since the CMB doesn't actually retain any more water than a regular dressing, how does it help?

A look at the PDF of the FDA application and a letter of reply shows that this is nothing more than a regular dressing with a little zinc and silver added:

Technologically, the CMB Antimicrobial Dressing and Characteristics predicate devices are the similar in that they all contain a fabric/gauze/pad component and an antimicrobial component.

The difference is that two antimicrobial components, silver and zinc, are included in the CMB dressing.

The FDA replies:

[We] have determined the device is substantially equivalent to legally marketed predicate devices marketed in interstate commerce [...] that do not require approval of a pre-market approval application.

So there you have it. It's allowed to be sold because it's not really very different from any other wound dressing. Other than the price.

Product page [SMP Prosit via MedGadget]