Isn’t it TIME for a more rational approach to burn dressings?

Abstract

Research into the most effective coverage of the burn wound has been suboptimal, which has resulted in a lack of evidence-based guidelines. A number of reasons for this lack of high-quality evidence are discussed. These are: the lack of differentiation between various types of dermal burns in studies; a failure to account for publication bias in reviews; the insufficient power of many studies; and the failure to account for basic science in the interpretation of study results. It is recommended that the choice of wound coverage of the burn is based on basic principles of wound bed preparation, as laid out in the TIME acronym (tissue, infection, moisture, epithelialisation).