Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
-
To assess the effects of mobility training on severe burn patients in the Burn Intensive Care Unit (BICU). ⋯ Mobility training in the BICU was shown to be feasible and effective in achieving better outcomes than passive training for severe burn patients.
-
Porcine wounds closely mimic human wounds and are often used experimentally in burn studies. Multiple burn devices have been reported but they rarely described precise amount of heat transfer and the burn devices generally have low and varying heat capacity resulting in significant and varying temperature drop. ⋯ The authors describe a simple, standardized and reproducible animal burn model using a customized burn device. The high heat capacity ensures minimal temperature drop which minimizes the variability of heat transferred with a large temperature drop. The correlation between the heat transfer and the depth of injury can facilitate standardization of burn depths in future studies.
-
To describe the epidemiology of pediatric burn patients seen in U.S. emergency departments (EDs) and to determine factors associated with inter-facility transfer. ⋯ Over 90% of pediatric burn ED patients meet ABA burn referral criteria but are not transferred from low volume hospitals. Perhaps a portion of the 92% of patients currently receiving definitive care in low volume hospitals are under-referred and would have improved clinical outcomes if transferred at the time of presentation.
-
In reconstructive burn surgery full thickness skin grafts (FTSGs) are frequently preferred over split thickness skin grafts because they are known to provide superior esthetic results and less contraction. However, the contraction rate of FTSGs on the long term has never been studied. ⋯ FTSGs showed a significant reduction in surface area, followed by a relaxation phase, but remained significantly smaller. Furthermore, the trunk should be preferred as donor site location over the extremities.
-
Case Reports
Second-degree burns with six etiologies treated with autologous noncultured cell-spray grafting.
Partial and deep partial-thickness burn wounds present a difficult diagnosis and prognosis that makes the planning for a conservative treatment versus mesh grafting problematic. A non-invasive treatment strategy avoiding mesh grafting is often chosen by practitioners based on their clinical and empirical evidence. However, a delayed re-epithelialization after conservative treatment may extend the patient's hospitalization period, increase the risk of infection, and lead to poor functional and aesthetic outcome. ⋯ The treatment results with autologous non-cultured cells, support rapid, uncomplicated re-epithelialization with aesthetically and functionally satisfying outcomes. Hospital stays averaged 7.6±1.6 days. Early autologous cell-spray grafting does not preclude or prevent simultaneous or subsequent traditional mesh autografting when indicated on defined areas of full-thickness injury.