Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Bitumen burns while comprising a small percentage of all types of burns are troublesome. They affect persons engaged in gainful employment which the burns then curtail, as well as requiring special attention because the substance adheres to the skin and is therefore difficult to remove. Ninety-two consecutive patients with such burns who were admitted as in-patients over a 10-year period (1985-1995) have been reviewed. ⋯ Roofing tars and asphalts are usually heated to temperatures of 232 degrees C to achieve desirable viscosities (e.g. for spraying), whereas lower temperatures are required for the manageable form to pave roads. Notable localities for asphaltum are the island of Trinidad and the Dead Sea region where lake asphaltums were long known to the ancient. Ironically, none of the 92 patients who were treated for bitumen injuries in the 'Soroka' (Beer-Sheba, Israel) and 'Barzilai' (Ashkelon, Israel) Medical Centres (80 and 150 km from the lake respectively) had anything to do with the Dead Sea area.
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The Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important life-threatening nosocomial pathogen in burn units. In this study we analysed epidemic P. aeruginosa isolates from patients and their hospital environment using two new molecular techniques in order to establish strain relatedness for epidemiological purposes. One technique was pyoverdine typing by isoelectric focusing (PVD-IEF) and the other was a genomic PCR-based fingerprinting technique called random amplification of polymorphic DNA actually referred to as RAPD-PCR. ⋯ The study demonstrates the applicability of the techniques in a routine microbiology lab as well as their usefulness, in combination with other techniques, in the fight against nosocomial infections, which are so critical in burn units. Both techniques showed undoubtable evidence of the occurrence of polymicrobial infection of individual patients by P. aeruginosa species. Meanwhile pyoverdine typing by IEF seems suited to studying more profoundly the role of pyoverdines in burns.
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Hot air burns resulting from hairdriers held against the skin are rare. The largest published clinical series relates to burns in children injured by the use of hairdriers at home. Adults are assumed not to be at risk because the pain associated with thermal injury would normally stimulate acute action to prevent further skin damage. ⋯ There was loss of consciousness resulting from an epileptic fit in one case, and the local absence of sensation in a flap used to reconstruct a breast after mastectomy, in the other. The temperatures generated by hairdriers were experimentally assessed and the results are reviewed. We emphasize that hairdriers are a potentially dangerous source of hot air and can cause burns.
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The purpose of the present study was to analyse the course of patients hospitalised with electrical burn wounds in the past 25 years at a major children's hospital in the United States in order to devise safe and cost effective management strategies for these patients. The study was a retrospective chart review of patients with electrical injuries admitted to the hospital between 1971 and 1995. We identified 127 children who were included in the study. ⋯ A retrospective review revealed that the great majority of patients with low voltage electrical injuries did not need admission to the hospital and could have been cared for on an outpatient basis. Almost every patient with high voltage injury had a justified admission due to the severity of the injury. On the basis of these results we conclude that we can safely reduce the number of admissions to the hospital for children with low voltage minor electrical injuries.
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Rhabdomyolysis due to flame burns is not well described. A case of fatal rhabdomyolysis in an epileptic patient who sustained 65 per cent body surface area, very deep, flame burns is described. It appears as if the sustained muscle compression from the restrictive, circumferential eschar was the major factor in the aetiology of the rhabdomyolysis. ⋯ It would seem as if rhabdomyolysis following extensive full thickness burns may be more common than previously suggested. Fluid requirements are in excess of those proposed by traditional protocols. Rhabdomyolysis in flame burn patients indicates a poor prognosis.