Banana leaves as a traditional dressing for pemphigus: a case report

Pemphigus vulgaris is one of the most common autoimmune blistering disorders, with most patients presenting in late stages with severe and extensive erosions over the skin. Along with systemic management of the disease, it is important to provide local wound care to prevent secondary infection. Here, we report the case of a patient who presented with extensive erosions and showed no response to standard dressing protocols. Thus, it is important to review alternate, easily available, environment friendly dressing materials. This case report discusses how banana leaves and gentian violet were used to manage severe and extensive erosions in a pemphigus patient who showed no improvement with modern-day dressings. We also compared the costs of modern-day dressings with the banana leaf dressing used in our setup. Following the success of this methodology, we have been using banana leaves for various chronic non-healing wounds and ulcers.