title: Burn scar assessment: A systematic review of objective scar assessment tools.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  All deep second and third degree burns are at risk to develop hypertrophic scars which can severely undermine the quality of survival. To assess the severity of scarring, several technical devices or tools have been introduced to evaluate one or more aspects of the scar, enabling comparison of different treatment protocols and allowing an objective follow-up. The objective of this study was to review which tools can be used in objective burn scar assessment.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Systematic literature search involving PubMed, the Web of Science (incl. Science Citation Index).
  
  
  RESULTS
  51 articles with burn scar assessment as main topic were found. Several characteristics of the scar can be assessed, such as color, metric features and elasticity, but none of the available tools covers the whole aspect of the scar. Especially subjective factors such as pain and itching cannot be assessed with those tools, in spite of their great impact on the patient's quality of life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Scar tools enable objective and reproducible evaluation of scars, which is essential for scientific studies and medico-legal purposes, and in selected cases for the clinical follow-up of an individual patient. Further studies to evaluate these tools on scars are nevertheless required.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. Nele.Brusselaers@Ugent.be
authors.forename: Nele
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Brusselaers
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pirayesh
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoeksema
authors.forename: Jozef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verbelen
authors.forename: Stijn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Blot
authors.forename: Stan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Monstrey
mesh_terms: D002056:Burns / Q000473:pathology*; D002921:Cicatrix / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology