Wound infection among children with moderate burns – An explorative review of the association between reported frequency and diagnosis

The Linkoping burn centre in Sweden has, even though being a high income country, reported high burn wound infections (BWI) frequencies in scalded children compared to similar populations in other parts of the world. The aim was to investigate possible explanations for differences in frequency of BWI among children with partial thickness burns treated at the Linköping burn centre in Sweden, and that reported in other studies. In order to investigate what BWI criteria that were used in similar studies a literature search on PubMed Central was done along with a retrospective analysis of children previously diagnosed as infected to confirm or reject the high infection frequency reported earlier. Of the 34 selected publications reporting on BWI frequency 16 (47%) did not define a criteria for the BWI diagnosis and almost a third did not report on wound culturing. Of those who did report the use a third do not mention any bacterial growth found is these cultures. The retrospective analysis on children at the centre did not show any decrease in infection frequency even with some disagreement on onset for the BWI. The reporting of criteria and diagnosis of burn wound infection is highly variable making it difficult to interpret results and come to conclusions. The high frequency of BWI at the centre might be a result of close monitoring due to study participation, use of clean instead of sterile routine at dressing changes or low thresholds for the diagnosis in respect to changes in infection markers. •Explorative review of the association between reported frequency and diagnosis of burn wound infection (BWI).•Literature review showed that 47% of the selected publications reporting on BWI frequencydid not define a criteria for the BWI.•The reporting of BWI is highly variable making it difficult to interpret results and come to conclusions.•Consensus on how we report on BWI is urgently needed.