American and British English spellings were included to avoid
a possible loss of results. The five filters were then joined to
form one major search filter (Table 1).
The last search in both databases took place on July 15,
2012. No search restrictions were applied with regard to year of
publication, authors or participating institutions. Only the
studies about the treatment of human burns, ulcers and other
wounds (e.g. trauma, post-operative wounds,. . .) were eligible
for inclusion in the review. The flow of publications was
executed by the first two authors separately and their results
were compared. In case of differing opinions, a third opinion
was solicited.
The study parameters presented in Tables 4 and 5 were
systematically included in the detailed analysis and methodological strengths or weaknesses were identified. Outcome
parameters were grouped in six different categories (Table 2).
All these items were listed and the findings were discussed
between the authors.