Diphoterine for Chemical Burns of the Skin: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The incidence of chemical burns appears to be increasing. Diphoterine is an amphoteric, chelating, polyvalent solution used for the decontamination of chemical splashes. In this systematic review, we aimed to assess the effect of diphoterine on chemical burns compared with water or no treatment. The primary endpoint was the depth of burn, and secondary outcomes included pain, duration of hospitalization, time to return to work, need for surgery, pH, and complications. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were systematically searched using the terms “Diphoterine”, “Previn”, and ““Amphoteric solution” AND “burn””. A total of nine studies were included. One study evaluated the depth of chemical burns and found no difference between the diphoterine group and the control group. Four studies reported on pain, three of which found a more pronounced decrease in pain when using diphoterine compared to the control groups. Two studies found a significant neutralization of pH when using diphoterine. No differences were found for the remaining endpoints. Based on the very low certainty of evidence, this systematic review reports no observed difference between diphoterine and water or no treatment on the depth of a chemical burn. Diphoterine appeared to be associated with less pain and to have a neutralizing effect.

Keywords

• chemical burn
• skin burns
• chemical splash