Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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A retrospective study has been made of the patients hospitalized in the Burn Centre of La Fe Hospital in Valencia (Spain) during 1989. Of the 1825 patients seen during this period, 146 (8 per cent) were admitted to hospital. The mean patient age was 31.42 years, 68.5 per cent of the patients were male; 34.1 per cent were children under the age of 15 years and 15 per cent were over 60 years old. ⋯ Burns caused by fire affected mainly the head and neck, scalding tended to involve the trunk and electrical current caused injury to the limbs. Half the hospital admissions were discharged within 15 days. Most of the lesions requiring hospital admission occurred during the winter months.
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The coverage of posterior elbow defects after debridement of burns is usually done by skin flaps from adjacent chest or abdomen in a two-stage operation. Other possibilities are local flaps and free-tissue transfer. A proximally based radial forearm flap for the cover of a 5-day-old burn is presented. It is considered to be indicated in large defects of the posterior surface of the elbow, including several centimetres of the triceps tendon.
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This retrospective review contains 127 paediatric burns up to 14 years of age admitted to the Burn Unit of the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, SMS. Medical College, Jaipur over a period of 1 year from January 1990. Epidemiological data include age, sex, seasonal variation, place of burn, family size, economic status, period of time between the accident and admission to hospital. ⋯ Most of the patients belonged to the low socioeconomic strata and were members of medium or large size families. The commonest causes of injury were scalds in children under 5 years of age and flames in the older children. The overall mortality was 19.68 per cent.
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Clinical Trial
A prospective clinical study on the pathogenesis of multiple organ failure in severely burned patients.
This study has shown that multiple organ failure (MOF) is one of the major causes of death in patients with severe burns. Both the plasma and visceral levels of TXB2 and the TXB2/6-keto-PGF1 alpha ratio were significantly increased. The changed plasma levels of TXB2 and the TXB2/6-keto-PGF1 alpha ratio paralleled the deterioration of the general condition in MOF patients. ⋯ Degeneration, destruction, oedema, haemorrhage and thrombosis were observed in tissues from patients who died due to heart, lung, renal and hepatic failure. Clinically, 13 of the 16 MOF cases developed organ failure and 11 died between 3 and 7 days postburn. These findings confirmed that the increases of TXA2 and the TXA2/PGI2 ratio in plasma and visceral tissues can be an important factor in the genesis and development of postburn MOF.
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Twenty patients with cement burns presenting to Stoke Mandeville Hospital Burns Unit between 1981 and 1989 are described. They represent 1.8 per cent of the total adult patients treated at this unit. ⋯ A questionnaire sent to all the accident and emergency officers employed within the catchment area of the Burns Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital showed important gaps in their knowledge of the subject. It is suggested that further publicity be given to this uncommon but potentially serious injury.