A comparative study on therapeutic effect of sodium chloride and alcohol in infants with umbilical granulomas

Background: Umbilical granuloma is a common inflammatory reaction which occurs during falling of umbilicus. Some treatments include use of daily alcohol, burning with silver nitrate and granuloma ligator. Objective: To compare the therapeutic effect of common salt and alcohol in infants with umbilical granuloma. Methods: This was a clinical trial carried out on 105 infants with umbilical granuloma. The cases were randomly divided into three groups. The first group received common salt for three days (once every 12 hours) and the second group treated with 70% alcohol twice a day (0.5 ml each time). In the third group (control) the umbilicus was washed with pure water twice a day (0.5 ml each time). The data was analyzed using Chi-square test and the One-way analysis of variance. Findings: The recovery rates among infants were 100% (common salt), 34.3% (alcohol) and 14.3% (pure water) following 3 days. This difference was statistically significant (p=0.0000). However, in 25.7% of infants treated with alcohol and 60% of control group, who were cured before 3 days, the umbilical granuloma recurred after an average of 8.3 days and 4 days, respectively. There was no recurrence among infants treated with common salt. All infants in control group and those who were treated with alcohol for 3 days, either with no cure or with recurrence, went under treatment with common salt. Follow up for two months in infants treated with common salt was indicative of no recurrence among them. Conclusion: Our data showed that the use of common salt in treating umbilical granuloma was more effective than 70% alcohol. So,it is suggested that the technique using common salt to be substituted for other procedures due to low price and lack of any complications