State of the art in enzymatic debridement

Abstract

Surgical treatment of deep partial thickness to full thickness burn wounds by knife has been the undisputed standard of care and was one key point in surgical burn medicine for decades. Recently, it gets more and more challenged by Bromelain-based enzymatic burn wound debridement (ED) as technique for non-surgical, selective eschar removal. Although the literature on ED is increasing constantly it cannot comprise the rapid progress that is made in clinical application of ED. To outline the current state of art in ED, recent literature as well as clinical experience is summarized and the main steps in clinical application including indications, wound preparation, application of the enzyme, wound bed assessment and further treatment after ED are discussed. Initial indications and limitations in application of ED could be gradually extended to increase versatility of ED as tool in burn surgery. Several randomized controlled trials compared ED to standard of care (SOC). They could show significant shorter time to complete burn wound debridement and wound closure, reduced need for surgery, reduced blood loss, reduced area of burns that needed surgical excision and need for autograft as well as an improved scar quality. Further research is necessary to justify an extensive use of ED as tool for burn eschar removal. Especially a robust comparison to surgical burn wound excision by knife as SOC is required to facilitate evidence-based burn surgery.