Evolution of effective of Amniotic Membrane Dressing vs. Conventional Topical Antibiotic Dressing of Skin Graft Donor Site in Burn Patients

Introduction & The management of the donor site after harvesting a skin graft is an important issue. The ideal donor-site dressing would promote healing time, reduces pain, reduces the number of times needed to change dressing, prevents infection and is cost effective. In this study we compared the skin graft donor site wound epithelialization time, infection rate and patient cooperation during the change of dressing between two groups having amniotic membrane (AM) dressing and conventional topical antibiotic dressing. 42 patients with 20-40% second and third degree burns enrolled in this randomized clinical trial study in Motahari burn center. In each patient two similar anatomic areas were selected randomly as control and intervention donor sites. In all cases the size and thickness AM of the skin was similar in the two donor sites. The dressing of the intervention site was done by amniotic membrane and the control site with gas-impregnated antibiotic ointment. Variables were assessed by experienced burn surgeons and trained nurses. The mean age and mean burn percentage of the patients were respectively 31.17 ± 13.72 year and 31.19 ± 10.56 percent. Patients in AM dressing group had better cooperation. The mean (SD) score of patient cooperation was 1.6 ± 0.79 in AM dressing and 2.93 ± 0.71 in conventional dressing group and this differences was significant (P