A silver-impregnated antimicrobial dressing reduces hospital costs for pediatric burn patients

Since using a novel silver-impregnated antimicrobial dressing (Aquacel Ag, ConvaTec, Princeton, NJ) in our pediatric patients with partial-thickness burns, hospital LOS has been significantly reduced. Here we investigated whether there was concomitant cost-effectiveness of this approach.

We retrospectively reviewed Burn Registry Data from a large Children's Hospital Burn Unit from January 2005 through August 2005 for inpatients with partial-thickness burns treated with Aquacel Ag. A comparison group was composed of patients from the same period the previous year treated with silver sulfadiazine cream (SSD, Par Pharmaceuticals, Woodcliff, NJ) and matched for age and %TBSA burned. Patients with inhalation injury or full-thickness burns were excluded. Intent-to-treat analysis was limited to patients with less than 22% TBSA burn. Direct costs and total charges were compared statistically after log transformation due to the skewedness of the data.

Total charges and direct costs were significantly lower for Aquacel Ag-treated patients (n = 38) than for SSD-treated patients (n = 39) (P = .004 and P < .001, respectively). In addition, Aquacel Ag-treated patients had a shorter LOS than SSD-treated patients.

These data strongly support our findings that the application of Aquacel Ag reduces hospital LOS which results in a significant cost savings in the care of pediatric patients with partial-thickness burns.