Efficacy of a children’s procedural preparation and distraction device on healing in acute burn wound care procedures: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Efficacy of a children’s procedural preparation and distraction device on healing in acute burn wound care procedures: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Trials, December 2012

23234491

Nadia J Brown, Sylvia Rodger, Robert S Ware, Roy M Kimble, Leila Cuttle

The intense pain and anxiety triggered by burns and their associated wound care procedures are well established in the literature. Non-pharmacological intervention is a critical component of total pain management protocols and is used as an adjunct to pharmacological analgesia. An example is virtual reality, which has been used effectively to dampen pain intensity and unpleasantness. Possible links or causal relationships between pain/anxiety/stress and burn wound healing have previously not been investigated. The purpose of this study is to investigate these relationships, specifically by determining if a newly developed multi-modal procedural preparation and distraction device (Ditto™) used during acute burn wound care procedures will reduce the pain and anxiety of a child and increase the rate of re-epithelialization.