Response to the letter to the Editor: ‘Scarring in partial thickness burns in children’

Abstract

Also on behalf of my co-authors, we want to thank Mr. Timothy Stuart Burges for his comment on our article ‘‘Optimal treatment of partial thickness burns in children: A systematic review’’ [1]. For our research we reviewed an extensive series of articles, obtained via a structured literature search using the Medline and Embase search engines, and Mr. Burges’ paper was not found. In fact, Mr. Burges describes the paper as ‘‘a presentation abstract’’ which is different from a full paper and, by nature, cannot not be considered as such for a review article. A search on the site of The Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps finds the article indeed [2]. However, this was only available through a paid download which is not in the current spirit of the scholarly literature. From Mr. Burges’ letter we understand that his presentation seems to be in line with the findings in our review: for these types of burns, membranous dressings perform better on various wound healing parameters than cream based [1] Vloemans AFPM, Hermans MHE, van der Wal MBA, Liebregts J, Middelkoop E. Optimal treatment of partial thickness burns in children: a systematic review. Burns 2014;40:177–90. [2] Atun AR, Burges TS, Kay AR, Estela C. Combined Services Plastic Surgery Society – biobrane experience in Bristol. J R Army Med Corps 2006;152:37–43.