Evaluation of pain associated with the application of burn dressings.

Introduction: Topical wound care after burn injury has revolutionized burn care. Dressings and topical solutions provide broad-spectrum antimicrobial coverage to prevent wound infection, be easy to apply and remove, and promote wound healing. A wide variety of dressings are available for providers to choose from based on wound characteristics. An additional factor to consider when making that decision is any pain associated with applying the dressing and frequency of dressing changes.

Methodology: This retrospective study aimed to examine the daily and maximum pain reported by patients and daily opioid consumption to determine if there are any differences among commonly used dressings including 5% sulfamylon solution (SMS), manuka honey, negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT), silver sulfadiazine, and silver nylon.

Results: This study demonstrated that silver sulfadiazine had lower mean daily pain scores compared only to manuka honey as well as lower maximum scores when compared to all other dressings except silver nylon. Furthermore, the choice of dressing did not have an overwhelming effect on the amount of opioids consumed by patients during their hospital stay with manuka honey having less opioid consumption when compared to only 5% SMS and NPWT only.

Conculsion: Further studies are needed with additional validated pain assessment tools and clinically relevant endpoints to fully elucidate the impact of burn dressings and other topical wound care options on pain.