Participants
The age of the patients ranged from 2 to 95 years. Two trials were undertaken in children (Bansal 2002; Valente 2003). In 5 of the eleven trials (Angeras 1992; Tay 1999; Griffiths 2001; Bansal 2002; Valente 2003) the treatment groups in each individual trial were comparable at baseline. In the trial by Angeras 1992 there were significantly more males than femalesin both groups and half the patients were between 18 and 35 years. In 8 trials the baseline data were not available. Of the included trials, 5 trials involved people with lacerations (Angeras 1992; Bansal 2002; Godinez 2002;Moscati 2007;Valente 2003),one trial each involved people with openfractures,(Museru 1989)andchronicwounds(Griffiths 2001) while four trials examined people with surgical wounds ( Goldberg 1981; Riederer 1997; Tay 1999; Neues 2000).