Therapeutic effect of table salt on umbilical granuloma in infants- North Indian experience

Introduction: Umbilical granuloma is one of the distressing problem to the patient's and parents due it's red fleshy look and continuous ooze of watery fluids. It is the most common umbilical problem in infant's. Normally umbilical cord separates 7-10 days after birth and umbilical cicatrix gets epithelised thereafter. It has been found that table salt/common salt has therapeutic effect in curing umbilical granuloma. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was done at GSV medical College, Kanpur enrolling 126 infants of age 4th to 20 weeks from Jan 2010 to July 2017. After excluding other umbilical problems, all granuloma patient's mother were advised to apply common salt on it twice a day for one week. Patients were followed up on 1st and 4th week of starting treatment. Results: In our study out of 126 patients 121 showed excellent result. In this group 78 were male and 43 were female infants. Overall cure rate was 96.3% which is as per international standard by other study group. Discussion: It has been postulated that due to some infection the normal epithelisation of umbilical cicatrix does not happen and overgrowth of granulomatous tissue takes place. This granuloma is devoid of any nerve tissue. Spontaneous regression of this granuloma is unknown, so there are different treatment modalities evolved for this problem. The desicant effect of common salt is the main mechanism of action of its curing property. Conclusion: Treatment of umbilical granuloma with table salt is very effective, easy and safe on out patient basis. Parents can directly involve here with great satisfaction as it is cost effective too.