This consensus document provides a framework for clinical use of PHMB, to educate and inform clinicians and to provide industry with key performance indicators based on the questions that arose from a consensus meeting in Spring 2010.

In spring 2010, a diverse group of clinicians met to discuss the issues for clinicians in the 21st century; where is the evidence, and how can clinicians ensure that the use of antiseptic/antimicrobial agents is carefully managed to maintain clinical-effectiveness and appropriate use of healthcare resources?

The group also discussed the future of antiseptic/antimicrobial therapy. With no new antibiotic therapies emerging on the horizon, the role of topical antiseptic/antimicrobial agents may take on an even greater significance. One possible solution lay with polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB), a compound which has been available for many years in a number of formats but which has not, until recently, made any significant impact on the UK wound care market.

If the use of PHMB is to ascend into the armoury of the UK wound care clinician, there needs to be careful review of its effectiveness, control of its use in clinical practice, and education of clinicians at the forefront of wound care. It is the intention of this document to provide material from the group's meeting and additional information to enable the reader to understand the framework of the discussions.

The consensus group comprised:

• Simon Barrett, Tissue Viability Specialist, East Yorkshire PCT
• Mayukh Battacharyya, Associate Specialist Orthopaedic Surgeon, Orthopaedic Department
• Orthopaedic, University Hospital, Lewisham
• Martyn Butcher, Independent Tissue Viability Nurse and Nurse Consultant, Cornwall
• Stuart Enoch, Specialist Registrar in Burns and Plastic Surgery, University Hospitals of South and Central Manchester
• Sian Fumarola, Clinical Nurse Specialist, University Hospital of North Staffordshire
• David Gray, Clinical Nurse Specialist, NHS Grampian, Aberdeen
• Jackie Stephen Haynes, Consultant Nurse and Senior Lecturer in Tissue Viability, Worcestershire Primary Care Trust and the University of Worcester
• Val Edwards-Jones, Professor of Medical Microbiology and Director of Research, , Metropolitan University Manchester
• David Leaper, Visiting Professor, Wound Healing Research Unit, Cardiff
• Professor Robert Strohal, University Teaching Hospital of Feldkirch, Austria
• Richard White, Professor of Tissue Viability, University of Worcester
• Gill Wicks, Nurse Consultant, Tissue Viability, Trowbridge Community Hospital, Trowbridge
• Trudie Young Lecturer in Tissue Viability, Bangor University, Wales

This meeting was supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Activa Healthcare, a L&R Company.

This document is provided by Wounds UK.