Managing blisters in minor burns: Should they be deroofed?

Abstract

Introduction: Management of burn blister has always been controversial. The options available are deroofing the blister, aspiration of fluid or leaving the blister intact. There is no set dressing protocol for managing blisters. Aims and objectives: To compare two treatment modalities i.e. deroofing and keeping the burn blister intact for the optimal management of minor superficial 2nd degree burns. Material and Methods: This prospective study was done on 27 patients who presented with minor superficial 2nd degree burns of upper limbs. Total of 50 blister wounds were randomly split into two categories of 25 each. One subset of blisters (Category 1) was deroofed and dressed every alternate day with silver alginate dressing. The other subset of blisters was left intact (Category 2) and dressed every alternate day. The parameters assessed and compared were pain at burn site, soakage of dressing and time to complete healing Statistical Analysis: Student t –test and Chi square (χ2) test . SPSS 21 software Results: The mean age of patients was 36 years. Category 1 wound patients had more pain (as assessed by Visual Analogue Scale) in comparison to Category 2 wounds. The time to wound healing was less by mean of 1.7days in Category 1 wounds compared to Category 2 wounds. Wound soakage was comparable in both subsets. Conclusion: De roofing a burn blister results in statistically significant decrease in time to wound healing and is recommended for management of minor superficial 2nd degree burns.