Is there an evidence-based practice for burns?

Doubts and questions about clinical decision making need to be answered. Evidence-based medicine aims to provide answers by systematically finding information from the vast assortment of research papers in the literature and bringing it together to use in everyday practice and in the best interests of the patient. Although clinical (and experimental) studies have a variety of methodologies, ranging from small descriptive studies to large multi-centre trials all are vital in describing or posing questions about the array of responses elicited when human beings are burned and subsequently treated. When it comes to treatment (be it a drug, a dressing, an enteral feed for example) the 'gold standard' for establishing whether it is effective is the randomized controlled trial (RCT). Using contemporary information retrieval systems and the numerous establishments set up to help track down information of research in medicine relevant to health practice and policy the numbers of RCTs, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of burn care have been established. Whilst the numbers of RCTs are increasing there is little evidence that burn care is an evidence-based practice.