Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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A 22-year-old man sustained 35 per cent burns to his skin and an inhalation injury in an industrial accident involving acetic anhydride. Although the skin burns healed following irrigation and conservative treatment, the inhalation injury proved fatal.
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The incidence of non-accidental injury in burned children and the repeat injury rate following non-accidental injury is very high according to some reports. A retrospective follow-up review was undertaken for all patients admitted to the Plymouth Paediatric Burns Unit over a 47-month period. Hospital records, general practitioners' records and the Social Services Department were used to gain follow-up information. ⋯ The repeat injury rate was very low indeed. These figures are very much lower than many of the published figures. This may be due to differences in the definition of non-accidental injury, differences in the population make-up or simply that a burn injury is a relatively uncommon form of non-accidental injury in Devon and Cornwall.
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Meningococcal septicaemia is a severe systemic illness which has an overall mortality of 15 per cent. It differs from meningococcal meningitis in clinical presentation, treatment, complications and prognosis. Skin and extremity loss are particular problems seen in meningococcal septicaemia. ⋯ We also discuss some of the pathophysiology behind skin necrosis. A popular view at present is that endotoxin from the cell wall of Neisseria meningiditis initiates the release of vasoactive cytokines by the host. High levels of interleukin-1 and interleukin-6 have been associated with a greater likelihood of fatality.