Assisted therapy with platelet-rich plasma for burn patients: A meta-analysis and systematic review

•Platelet-rich plasma can benefit the healing process of burn wounds.•Using platelet-rich plasma accelerates the closure of burn wounds.•Different preparation ways and choices of platelet-rich plasma may not affect the final outcome of burn wound healing.•There were no significant differences on infection rate and graft take rate between platelet-rich plasma and control groups. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy has been used in different medical fields, but its effectiveness in burn wound healing remains debatable. In this study, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available evidence on burn patients treated with PRP to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment. Randomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of PRP in patients with burn injuries were selected. Eligible retrospective studies were abstracted and assessed for the risk of bias by two reviewers and results of mean time to complete epithelization and wound closure rate in the included studies were analyzed. Studies on the correlation between PRP and burn wound healing published in English or Chinese before March 2020 were retrieved from PubMed. Eight studies (including 449 patients) met our inclusion criteria. Qualitative analysis revealed that compared with the control group, the PRP group had significantly better wound closure rates at weeks 2 (mean difference (MD): 12.79 [95% confidence interval (CI): 7.08, 18.49]; I2: 0%; p < 0.0001) and 3 (MD: 12.66 [95% CI: 5.97, 19.34]; I2: 55%; p = 0.0002) and time to complete epithelialization (MD: −3.45 [95% CI: −4.87, −2.04] (days); I2: 0%; p < 0.00001). There was no significant difference in infection rate or graft take rate. PRP application can accelerate wound closure, however, it has no effect on the rates of wound infection and graft take rate.