Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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The use of silastic foam as a surgical dressing in 15 children with full thickness burns to the hand is described. Silastic foam is a safe, easy and effective means of dressing the hand following surgery. It is rigid enough to act as a splint, and at the same time is deformable and accommodates postoperative swelling.
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Case Reports
Electrical burns caused by fishing rod contact with overhead electric cables: a potential hazard to fishermen.
Three patients were admitted to the Burns Unit at Newcastle General Hospital suffering from varying degrees of electrical burn injuries. All were fishermen whose injuries had been caused by their highly conductive carbon fibre fishing rods touching overhead high voltage electrical cables. This paper also describes the information available to fishermen to assist in the prevention of this type of injury.
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A short-term, prospective study, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, was designed to determine the practical, psychological and social implications of thermal injury resulting in scarring, for the mothers of thermally injured children, during the 6 months following the child's discharge from hospital. Mothers of 57 thermally injured children under 5 years of age were interviewed whilst the child was in hospital and at home, at 1 week, 2 months and 6 months following hospital discharge. Thermal injuries ranged from 1 to 41 per cent of body surface area and all required skin grafting. ⋯ The mean of the mothers' total GHQ scores was 2.42 for the retrospective, pre-injury score, 24.5 at the hospital interview and 5.96 at 6 months following the child's discharge from hospital. In conclusion, the mother is a neglected victim of a young child's thermal injury. Use of the MTIRP as an educational tool for carers would promote increased understanding and, thus, more appropriate support.
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In an experiment on rats, a partial thickness burn wound 20 mm in diameter was produced on the dorsum. Half the wound area was left untreated, the other half painted with elastic collodion. Examination on the 10th day following the intervention confirmed that prevention of dehydration can save a good proportion of thermally damaged tissue. It was also shown that prevention of dehydration results in a marked delay in wound healing.