News and Media

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) _ A Chinese physician said Monday he will seek a U.S. patent for a herbal ointment he claims can greatly reduce the pain and healing time of patients with serious burns.

Officials at Hackensack Medical Center said they hope to conduct clinical trials of Dr. Xu Rongxiang's ointment once it is patented and they learn what's in it.

Other burn experts said they would have to see proof before accepting the claims made by Xu, director of China's Science and Technology Center of Burns, Wounds and Surface Ulcers.

Dr. Anthony Barbara, chief of pediatric surgery at Hackensack Medical Center, said he saw the benefits of Xu's treatment during a visit to China last year.

''It does work, there's no question about it,'' Barbara said during a news conference with Xu at the hospital. ''How it works we'd have to find out.''

Until laboratory, animal and human trials are conducted, it's too early to judge whether the ointment represents improvement over current treatment, said Dr. Fred Caldwell of the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, president of the American Burn Association.

''What we have here are claims, but they're a little short on documentation,'' Caldwell said in a telephone interview from Little Rock, Ark.

''I think everybody who works in this area has to have an open mind for new treatments,'' he said. ''On the other hand, I think you couldn't be less than really objective in the evaluation. We've had too many false starts.''

His skepticism was echoed by Dr. Francis Nance, chairman of the surgery department and director of the burn unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

''New formulas for topical treatment of burns are a dime a dozen, they come and go,'' Nance said.

Xu said he has used the treatment on 54,000 patients in China, where he said the government approved testing in 1988. The ointment, made from plants, is applied directly to burned skin.

''Our medicine has the property of reducing further injury of the burn wound; it has the property of combating infection, and thirdly the medicine can promote, or accelerate, the healing of wounds,'' Xu said through an interpreter.

Xu is in the United States to meet with burn experts and federal health officials and to apply for a patent. He said he could not describe the contents of his ointment until it is patented, and neither he nor Barbara would speculate how long that might take.

Tests would determine how the ointment acts on the skin, what side effects it might have and what dosage is appropriate, Barbara said. It could take seven to 10 years for the Food and Drug Administration to approve the ointment for widespread use, he added.

Barbara and Harry J. Gaynor, president of the National Burn Victim Foundation based in Orange, traveled to China a year ago and met with Xu and several of his patients. Gaynor said they saw newly-burned patients who appeared to be in little or no pain, and former patients showing no signs of scarring despite having suffered severe burns.

''I strongly feel that each and every day this ointment is not available, that children and adults are suffering needlessly,'' Gaynor said.

Barbara said the ointment would be particularly useful for treating ''deep second-degree burns,'' involving blistering and damage to the skin below the surface but not complete destruction of the tissue.

Xu said the ointment shortened treatment time for deep second-degree burns to ''around 18-20 days.'' He and Barbara said this represents about a one- third reduction in the time it takes for such burns to heal, but Caldwell disagreed.

''That's what we expect now,'' Caldwell said. ''If a burn wound isn't closed in 21 days, you'd like to close it with a skin graft.''