Silver in surgical wound care: a closer look at antimicrobial island dressings

The theme for Wound Awareness Week 2026 is Save our Skin. Much of the campaign focuses on Australia’s chronic wound burden, but the theme also provides a useful prompt for surgical care. After all, once an incision is closed, the skin still has to restore its barrier function and heal. 

Postoperative wound management is one part of that process. The Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare note that surgical wounds should be covered with an appropriate interactive dressing after surgery unless clinically indicated otherwise, and that aseptic technique should be used when dressings are changed or removed.  

An antimicrobial dressing should not be selected simply because it contains silver. Teams need to understand what form of silver is present, how it reaches the wound and what product-specific evidence sits behind it.

Silver has changed since it first entered wound care 

Silver’s antimicrobial role in wound care predates modern antibiotics. Silver nitrate was used topically for burns, ulcers and infected wounds during the 19th century, while silver leaf was applied to soldiers’ wounds during the First World War in an effort to control infection.  

After silver solutions and creams came coated and impregnated dressings. These incorporated silver into or onto the dressing matrix, but could also carry a risk of local or systemic silver accumulation. 

Silverlon® delivers silver differently. And that shift reduces infection and complication rates, which in turn eases clinical workload. 

How Silverlon® delivers silver

Silverlon® uses pure elemental silver plated onto a nylon substrate. When activated by moisture, the dressing releases silver ions at the wound surface while the metallic silver remains bound within the dressing structure. 

Antimicrobial effectiveness

Once activated by moisture, Silverlon® releases positively charged silver ions that bind to microbial cells where they interfere with the cell wall and respiratory processes, and can disrupt DNA replication.

And it works – Silverlon® eradicates MRSA within 4 hours and Pseudomonas within 1 hour. 

Patient safety

Some dressings can release silver particles into the wound. Those particles may be retained locally or absorbed systemically, with accumulation linked to tissue discolouration such as argyria and broader toxicity concerns.

Silverlon® avoids such risks. It is designed to release only silver ions while the metallic silver remains plated to the nylon substrate. In a Good Laboratory Practice animal study, silver ions were still detectable in treated wound tissue after the dressing was removed, but no silver was detected in blood, liver, kidney or spleen. Liver and kidney function also remained normal in the study model.

Evidence for Silverlon® in surgery

• Cardiac sternotomy incisions: a controlled clinical study of 1,600 cardiac surgery patients reported mediastinitis in:
  
  • 0 of 365 patients treated with Silverlon® Island Dressings
    
  • 13 of 1,235 patients (1%) treated with standard gauze dressings.
• Elective colorectal surgery: a randomised trial of 110 patients reported surgical site infection in:
  
  • 13% of patients treated with Silverlon® 
    
  • 33% of patients treated with gauze dressings.
• Primary hip and knee arthroplasty: a case-control study reported 
  
  • 0 deep prosthetic joint infections across 309 Silverlon® procedures 
    
  • 12 infections (2.3%) in the control group. 

Silver-plated technology in an island dressing format

Silverlon® surgical island dressings bring the silver-plated nylon platform into a familiar postoperative dressing format. 

Available in 8 sizes, Silverlon® surgical island dressings are indicated for: 

• surgical wounds
  
• donor and graft site wounds
  
• diabetic, venous and pressure ulcers
  
• infected wounds (the infection should be treated according to local clinical protocols). 

From the OR to the bedside
Watch our short in-service video on Silverlon® surgical island dressings, showing you how to activate, apply and remove them

Considering Silverlon® for surgical wounds? 

Elite Medical has the reach of a national supplier but the reflexes of a small one. If you’re interested in how Silverlon® could support your post-operative care, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to provide more information to help you assess the product. 

Disclaimer
This information is intended for healthcare professionals.

References

• National Health and Medical Research Council. (2019). Australian guidelines for the prevention and control of infection in healthcare. Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-05/australian-guidelines-for-the-prevention-and-control-of-infection-in-healthcare.pdf
• Politano, A. D., Campbell, K. T., Rosenberger, L. H., & Sawyer, R. G. (2013). Use of silver in the prevention and treatment of infections: silver review. Surgical infections, 14(1), 8–20. https://doi.org/10.1089/sur.2011.097
• Huckfeldt, R., Redmond, C., Mikkelson, D., Finley, P. J., Lowe, C., & Robertson, J. (2008). A clinical trial to investigate the effect of silver nylon dressings on mediastinitis rates in postoperative cardiac sternotomy incisions. Ostomy/wound management, 54(10), 36–41. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18927482/
• Krieger, B. R., Davis, D. M., Sanchez, J. E., Mateka, J. J., Nfonsam, V. N., Frattini, J. C., & Marcet, J. E. (2011). The use of silver nylon in preventing surgical site infections following colon and rectal surgery. Diseases of the colon and rectum, 54(8), 1014–1019. https://doi.org/10.1097/DCR.0b013e31821c495d   
• Tisosky, A. J., Iyoha-Bello, O., Demosthenes, N., Quimbayo, G., Coreanu, T., & Abdeen, A. (2017). Use of a Silver Nylon Dressing Following Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Decreases the Postoperative Infection Rate. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Global research & reviews, 1(7), e034. https://doi.org/10.5435/JAAOSGlobal-D-17-00034