Should we be advising patients to use topical silicone gel for wound care following facial laceration suturing in the emergency department ?

Abstract

A short systematic review was undertaken to assess whether silicone gel improves cosmetic and symptomatic outcomes of scars following the suturing of traumatic facial lacerations in ED. A systematic keyword search of EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane and Google Scholar databases returned two papers. The author, year, country, patient characteristics, study type, key outcomes and weaknesses were tabulated. The results indicate that silicone gel improves cosmetic and symptomatic outcomes when used for at least one month. However, the limited patient characteristics and short follow-up period indicate that larger studies are needed to provide further recommendations.