The silver cation has broad-spectrum antibiotic activity toward Gram-positive, Gram-negative, fungal, aerobic and anerobic micro0organisms. Silver has been used to care of infected wound, pyogenic arthritis, and chronic osteomyelitis. The purpose
of
this study was to determine whether pure silver wire iontophoresis using milliamperage direct current has an inhibitory effect on growth in vitro of 3 different species of bacteria - Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas
aeruginosa.
Using agarose based media, siiver iontophoresis performed at 0, 2, 4, 8 mA for 15 minutes. All experiments were performed in triplicate. Following iontophoresis, inhibition zone width of bacterial growth was measured with caliper
The inhibition of bacterial growth occured at the anodal silver electrode. Inhibition zone width of bacterial growth was significantly increased in all three bacterial species (p<0.05). Between bacterial species, inhibition zone width was not
significantly different. Inhibition zone and amperage showed a highly significnat positive linear relationship (p<0.001).
The result of this study showed that pure silver wire iontophoresis with milliamperage direct current, as well as microamperage direct current, can inhibit bacterial growth in vivo.
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