TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/120390/1203350.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 81 lines

                                                                                MEDICINE, Page 91

Cold Shoulder for a Burn "Cure"


A touted Chinese treatment earns mostly skepticism in the U.S.

    The claims were little short of miraculous. A simple herbal
ointment from China was allegedly accomplishing what the most
sophisticated medical technology in the U.S. could not. Victims
of severe burns, charred beyond recognition, recovered almost
unblemished. Damaged skin that would normally require extensive
surgery healed on its own. The searing pain of a blistering
wound suddenly disappeared, without the aid of narcotics.

    Those were the astonishing reports that appeared in the
past year in a variety of publications -- from newsletters to
Newsweek magazine -- concerning a substance developed in China
called the Moist Burn Ointment. The stories raised hope among
100,000 Americans who suffer from severe burns each year that
the Chinese may have made a breakthrough that could help ease
the victims' pain.

    But last week leading U.S. burn doctors had an opportunity
to examine the claims up close, and they saw no miracles -- at
least not yet. The Chinese doctor who developed the medication,
Dr. Xu Rong Xiang, flew to the U.S. for the first time to
present his findings at major burn centers in New York City,
Boston and Bethesda, Md. The reception was not as warm as he
might have hoped. Said Dr. Cleon Goodwin, director of the
respected New York Hospital Burn Center: "Dozens of magic
potions have been put forward as miracle cures in the past 30
years. Not one has panned out. So naturally we are skeptical."

    The MBO method is disarmingly simple. Doctors spread a thin
layer of the ointment over the wounded area with a tongue
depressor and keep the skin completely covered until it heals.
So far, the treatment has been used on 50,000 burn patients in
China and on several hundred elsewhere. Xu and colleagues
traveled to Thailand last month to help treat victims of a gas
explosion in Bangkok. In the U.S. the doctor has won converts at
the New Jersey-based National Burn Victim Foundation. Xu, 32,
who comes from a family of herbal-medicine specialists, will not
reveal the ointment's formula until he receives a patent, saying
only that it contains honey, sesame oil and other "herbal"
ingredients.

    The doctor is less reticent about his results. He claims
the ointment reduces pain almost on contact, lessening the need
for narcotics. MBO also cuts healing time one-third for many
burns, he says. And that reduction can sharply reduce scarring.
Some cases requiring skin grafting operations in the U.S. can
be treated with ointment alone, he contends. "I am totally
confident," asserts Xu, "that the burn cure will be accepted
here in the U.S."

    But many American doctors are not so sure. To begin with,
they say, unless Xu reveals the formula, the Food and Drug
Administration cannot approve clinical trials. And only when
such trials have been carried out and the method's effectiveness
demonstrated on large numbers of burn patients are U.S. doctors
likely to take these claims seriously. Before-and-after
photographs prove little, since a few patients have healed
surprisingly well under any circumstances. Concludes Dr. Fred
Caldwell, president of the American Burn Association: "It's one
thing to make claims of a miracle cure. It's another to back up
those claims with good clinical trials." The ointment may
ultimately prove to be of some value, but in medicine new
treatments have to pass the test -- again and again -- before
they become miracles.


By Andrew Purvis, with reporting by Kim Gooi/Bangkok.