A Family Member's Experience in Treating Bedsores and Skin Ulcers

Today a parent brought a child with neuroblastoma to see me. In passing, she mentioned that during a prior hospital stay the child had developed a pressure sore with ulceration, and she had tried many things without success. By chance she combined zinc oxide ointment with MEBO moist burn ointment, and in just two days the child's skin problem resolved.

Bedsores and skin ulceration are common in long-term bedridden patients. Although dedicated bedsore ointments exist, in practice I have found the problem hard to handle—not something an ointment easily fixes. Repairing an ulcer in two days is unrealistic, so this experience is genuinely rare. I record it to share with other patients troubled by this.

Zinc oxide ointment is a common topical medicine for acute or subacute dermatitis, eczema, prickly heat, and mild, small-area skin ulcers.

The trace element zinc is important in treating ulcers. Topical zinc oxide treats small skin ulcers; oral licorice-zinc granules treat mouth, gastric, and duodenal ulcers. Zinc has few side effects; occasional allergy resolves on stopping.

MEBO moist burn ointment is a Chinese patent topical medicine for burns and scalds, developed by Prof. Xu Rongxiang, China's burn-surgery leader. Its main actions are to clear heat and detoxify, stop pain, and generate flesh; it is used for burns, scalds, and thermal injury.

MEBO's main ingredients include the herbs Huanglian (Coptis), Huangbai (Phellodendron), Huangqin (Scutellaria), Dilong (Earthworm), and Yingsuke (Poppy Husk). It is traditionally prepared with sesame oil, so patients allergic to sesame should use it cautiously.

Huanglian, Huangbai, and Huangqin are typical heat-clearing, detoxifying herbs, effective not only for burns but for heat-toxin sores. I often use this ointment for skin problems; it works very well on red, swollen, painful lesions.

Combining these two ointments for severe skin ulcers has rarely been tried by doctors; this was a family member's desperate, trial-and-error success.

I hope her experience helps other patients.