Topical treatment for facial burns, Review question, We reviewed the evidence about the effects of topical (applied to the surface of the skin) treatments for healing burn wounds on the face or neck. We wanted to find out which treatments were most effective at healing these wounds and improving the appearance of scars, which is a particularly important issue in relation to facial burn injuries. We also wanted to find out how topical treatments affected the risk of complications such as infection and pain, and how they impacted on peoples' quality of life., Background, Burn injuries are an important health problem, and a major global cause of disability and disfigurement in both adults and children. Women and children in low‐income countries are at particular risk. Burns pose particular problems when they occur on the head or neck. The face is central to a person's identity and plays a vital role in communication. Other basic functions such as hearing, smell and breathing may become affected as a direct result of a facial burn. Topical treatments such as (non) antimicrobial creams and skin substitutes, are most commonly used to treat facial burns. We wanted to compare the effectiveness of these treatments to evaluate their benefits and harms., Study characteristics, In December 2019, we searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating topical treatments for facial burns. RCTs are medical studies where the treatment or care people receive is chosen at random. This type of study design provides the most reliable health evidence about whether different approaches to treatment or care can make a difference. We found 12 studies that were suitable for inclusion in this review update, with 507 participants with mean ages ranging from 5.3 to 41.9 years. Three studies compared antimicrobials with non‐antimicrobials agents, two studies compared different antimicrobials, four studies compared skin substitutes with antimicrobials, while four studies compared a variety of topical treatments. One study contributed to two comparisons. Eight studies were small (fewer than 40 participants) and almost all studies were at high risk of bias due to lack of blinding (where participants and evaluators may have known which group the participants were allocated to and interpreted effects differently)., Key results, Overall, there is mainly low to very low‐certainty evidence on the effects of any topical intervention on wound healing or infection in people with facial burns. In addition, there is low to very low‐certainty evidence on the effects of the included interventions on need for surgery, pain, scar quality, patient satisfaction, length of hospital stay and side effects., All results were at high risk of bias and varied, which may have exaggerated the effects., Certainty of the evidence, Overall, the certainty of the evidence about the effectiveness of topical treatments for facial burns is low to very low. There is insufficient reliable evidence as to whether topical treatments improve outcomes for people with facial burns including improving wound healing, or rates of infection. Better trial design and reporting of these studies is required to contribute to evidence‐based burn care., How up to date is this review?, We searched for studies that had been published up to December 2019.