550 A retrospective Study of a Zinc-oxide/dimethicone for Pediatric Perineal Burn Treatment

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Silver-based treatments have seen widespread use for the management of burns. Recent literature, however, has demonstrated silver nanoparticles may negatively impact healing time due to its toxic effect on keratinocytes and fibroblasts at higher concentrations. At our institution, an ABA-verified pediatric burn center, the use of a silver sulfadiazine cream for management of post-discharge perineal and genital burn wounds has been replaced by a zinc-oxide/dimethicone spray-on solution initiated for its comparative ease of use. The dimethicone allows the spray to be occlusive without interfering with clothing, yet easily removed. We believed this would improve compliance with at-home treatments. Zinc-oxide’s antimicrobial activity has been demonstrated in vitro and the results from animal studies are promising for burn management. This is the first study of zinc-oxide’s efficacy as a burn management agent in humans. Our burn center’s experience with both silver sulfadiazine and zinc-oxide/dimethicone creates an opportunity to compare these products for the treatment of burn wounds. We sought to analyze the time to healing of burns treated by silver sulfadiazine against zinc-oxide/dimethicone in order to determine if zinc-oxide/dimethicone, in its easy-to-use form, is a viable alternative to silver sulfadiazine. Methods A retrospective review of medical records was conducted at a large pediatric verified burn center. Data on 98 patients was collected from the burn registry and electronic medical records. 58 patients received silver sulfadiazine while 40 received zinc-oxide/dimethicone. Four patients were removed from the silver sulfadiazine group due to incomplete data. All patients were initially treated by the burn team with follow up in burn clinic on a weekly basis until healing was achieved. Results Time to healing was significantly lower in the zinc-oxide/dimethicone intervention group (10.61 +/- .918 days) than the silver sulfadiazine control group (16.88 +/- 2.134 days). The silver sulfadiazine group contained patients with total body surface area burns significantly greater than the zinc-oxide/dimethicone group (mean: 11.57% versus 6.64%); likely due to selective treatment when zinc-oxide/dimethicone was first introduced at our facility. Differences in depth and size of burn wounds may have confound our results and negatively impacted healing time in the control group. No infection, allergic reaction, or other adverse events were noted in any patient. Conclusions Zinc-oxide/dimethicone had a significantly lower healing time than silver sulfadiazine in the treatment of at-home, post-discharge 2nd degree pediatric burns to the perineum, genitalia, suprapubis, and buttocks. Further study is needed to quantify its efficacy.