Editor—Dressing burns represents one of the most controversial topics in the area of cutaneous wounds. Hudspith and Rayatt suggest using a simple paraffin gauze1; but this type of dressing is easily bridled with a burn's exudate when it dries up, tending to cause pain and difficulty in movement.
Cole suggests using up to four overlapped layers of paraffin gauze to obviate this drawback.2 Silver sulfadiazine ointment is widely used in treating burns. In the few randomised controlled trials on the use of silver sulfadiazine in the treatment of burns, silver sulfadiazine has always shown worse results than biosynthetic dressings and hydrocolloid.3,4 Despite all this the use of silver sulfadiazine is still recommended. Chung et al have written an article with an explicit title on this type of treatment.5
Competing interests: None declared.
References
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