We conducted this Institutional Review Board-approved retrospective study to compare
Aquacel Ag Hydrofiber dressing (
Aquacel Ag) to a standard dressing for the treatment of partial thickness
burns in children. We used the St. Christopher's Hospital burn center registry to identify 20 pediatric patients who had sustained partial thickness
burns over a 10-month period. Ten of these patients had been treated with
Aquacel Ag Hydrofiber dressing and 10 were treated with conventional Xeroflo gauze with
Bacitracin Zinc ointment, the institutional standard of care for nonoperative partial-thickness
burn wounds. Inclusion criteria included anyone with partial-thickness
burns below the age of 18 years and in excellent baseline health. Exclusion criteria included inhalation injury, presence of full-thickness
burns necessitating surgical
debridement, cellulitic, or infected
wounds, and percentage total body surface area involvement greater than 40%. Outcomes measured for the
Aquacel Ag versus the Xeroflo gauze with
Bacitracin Zinc ointment group included hospital
length of stay (2.4 vs. 9.6 days), total number of in-house dressing changes (2.7 vs. 17.1),
pain on a 10-point scale associated with dressing changes (6.4 vs. 8.2), total number of intravenous
narcotic administrations (2.3 vs. 14.4), nursing time adjusted for percentage total body surface area (1.9 vs. 3.5 min), time to
wound reepithelialization (10.3 vs. 16.3 days), and patient primary caregiver satisfaction score using a 4-point scale--with four delineating maximum satisfaction (3.8 vs. 1.8).
Aquacel Ag proved to be a safe and effective means of treating partial thickness
burns with a significant reduction in nursing time and patient
pain involved with dressing changes.