Superiority of silver-foam over porcine xenograft dressings for treatment of scalds in children: A prospective randomised controlled trial

Abstract

AimOur aim was to compare two different regimens for the treatment of children with partial-thickness scalds. These were treated with either a porcine xenograft (EZderm®, Mölnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden) or a silver-foam dressing (Mepilex® Ag, Mölnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden). MethodsWe organised a prospective randomised clinical trial that included 58 children admitted between May 2015 and May 2018 with partial-thickness scalds to The Burn Centre in Linkoping, Sweden. The primary outcome was time to healing. Secondary outcomes were pain, need for operation, wound infection, duration of hospital stay, changes of dressings, and time taken. ResultsThe patients treated with silver-foam dressing had a significantly shorter healing time. The median time to 97% healing for this group was 9 (7–23) days compared to 15 (9–29) days in the porcine xenograft group (p = 0.004). The median time to complete healing for the silver-foam group was 15 (9–29) days and for the porcine xenograft group 20.5 (11–42) days (p = 0.010). Pain, wound infection, duration of hospital stay, and the proportion of operations were similar between the groups. Number of dressing changes and time for dressing changes were lower in the silver-foam dressing group (p = 0.03 for both variables). ConclusionsWe compared two different treatments for children with partial-thickness scalds, and the data indicate that wound healing was faster, fewer dressing changes were needed, and dressing times were shorter in the silver-foam group.