The Burns Menace: Antibiotics for the Fight against Burns Bacterial Infection, a Systemic Review

Abstract

Burn wound infection delays wound healing, leading to varying degrees of morbidity and mortality. Various antibiotics are administered to burn patients in burn wound management. The emergence of antibiotic resistance is a menace that costs families and the country. This review seeks to expound on infections related to burn wounds, common bacteria of burn wound infections and choice of antibiotics in burns treatment. Words such as burns, wound infection, burns injury and antibiotics were put into the Google search engine. Only articles related to the subject of burns, burn wound infection and antibiotics were used to write the review. Articles obtained included case reports on burns, research articles, review articles, short notes, briefs, literatures and other articles relating to burns. We found that the choice of antibiotics in the management of burns is an issue of major concern due to the evolution of pathogens causing these infections. The challenge of antibiotic resistance still persists in burns wound management. The commonly used topical antimicrobials included silver sulphadiazine, silver nitrate solution, silver impregnated dressings and mafenide acetate. Mafenide acetate has a wide antibacterial activity and also acts against the usual wound pathogens that were identified:Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The role of antibiotic resistance is of major concern. Antibiotics must be administered after culture evidence in order to reduce the chance of increasing evolution of resistant strains of bacteria.