Comparison of in vitro disc diffusion and time kill-kinetic assays for the evaluation of antimicrobial wound dressing efficacy.

There is a plethora of new silver-containing dressings on the market today. Various manufacturers attempt to show that their dressings are the most efficacious and therefore should be preferentially employed by health care workers based on the results of their in vitro tests. However, there have been no studies that clearly identify which tests are appropriate for comparison purposes.