OBJECTIVES: To assess effectiveness and harm of antibiotics for treating people with infected burn wounds. METHODS: In February 2017 we searched: The Cochrane Wounds Specialised Register; the CENTRAL; Ovid MEDLINE; Ovid EMBASE; EBSCO CINAHL Plus; Wan Fang Database;CBM; CNKI. We also searched clinical trial registries to identify unpublished and ongoing studies, and searched the reference lists of included studies to identify relevant studies. Two review authors independently performed study selection, risk of bias assessment and data extraction. Data was analysed by Revman 5.3. RESULTS: We included five RCTs with a total of 202 participants. For clincal cure, there was no clear evidence of a difference when teicoplanin compared with flucloxacillin (RR 1.15, 95%CI 0.81-1.63), vancomycin (RR 1.00, 95%CI 0.91-1.09) and vancomycin plus aztreonam (RR 1.00, 95%CI 0.82-1.22), as well as when ceftaroline compared with vancomycin plus aztreonam (RR 1.18, 95%CI 0.95-1.45); ceftazidime compared with aminoglycoside (RR 1.39, 95%CI 0.86-2.25). For bacteriological cure, there was no clear evidence of a difference when teicoplanin compared with flucloxacillin (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.65-1.85), or vancomycin (RR 1.00, 95%CI 0.91-1.09) , as well as when ceftazidime compared with aminoglycoside (RR 0.93, 95%CI 0.35-2.48). For development of resistant organisms, there was no clear evidence of a difference when teicoplanin compared with flucloxacillin (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.16-7.32) or when ceftazidime compared with aminoglycoside (RR 0.37, 95% CI 0.09-1.59).For adverse events, there was no clear difference when compared teicoplanin to flucloxacillin (RR 1.18, 95%CI 0.68-2.02), or vancomycin (RR 0.09, 95%CI 0.01-1.55). CONCLUSIONS: It is unclear which type of antibiotic is superior to treat infected burn. Despite the absence of the evidence, antibiotic therapy is common when burn wounds infection is suspected or determined. Further large, adequately powered and robust RCTs examining the active comparator and outcomes relating to cure, healing, infection-related mortality, superinfection are needed.