The efficacy of nano-silver and silver sulfadiazine for degree II burn wound: a meta-analysis

This study is to compare the treatment efficacy between nano-silver and silver sulfadiazine for the degree II burn wound. We searched the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, Chinese BioMedical Literature database (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and VIP database from inception to November 2016. The Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) comparing the treatment efficacy of nano-silver and silver sulfadiazine for degree II burn was collected. The literature screening, data extraction and assessment of bias were independently screened by two investigators. Seventeen RCTs, involving a total of 1575 patients, were finally included. The overall methodological quality of included studies was good. Compared with silver sulfadiazine, nano-silver significantly decreased the healing time in patients with both the superficial and deep degrees II burn (Mean Difference (MD)=-3.30, 95% CI: -3.88 similar to-2.72, P<0.00001; MD=-3.26, 95% CI: -4.03 similar to-2.49, p<0.00001 respectively). The wound healing rate at 15 days after burn was significantly higher in patients treated with nanosilver compared with that in patients treated with silver sulfadiazine (MD= 9.83, 95% CI: 4.02 similar to 15.64, P=0.0009). Finally, compared with silver sulfadiazine, nano-silver treatment significantly reduced the incidence of secondary bacterial infection after burn (RR=0.40, 95% CI: 0.27 similar to 0.58, p<0.00001) and the visual analog scale of patients (MD=-1.04, 95% CI: -1.34 similar to-0.75, P<0.00001). Our results indicated that nano-silver significantly promote wound healing of degree II burn and reduce the incidence of bacterial infection compared with silver sulfadiazine.