Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Heart rate variability (HRV) is a noninvasive method used to quantify fluctuations in the time interval between normal heart beats. The purpose of this study was to compare the autonomic nervous system functioning of patients with burns to healthy participants after their burn scars had been re-epithelialized. ⋯ We hypothesized that HRV is a surrogate for autonomic nervous system dysfunction in patients with burns. The patients with burns were observed a sympathetic predominance during daytime and a decreased parasympathetic activity during nighttime. These results of patients with other major burns were more predominant compared with the results of patients with other groups.
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There are no well accepted animal models of chronic wounds, limiting advances in understanding and treatment of chronic ulcers. We developed a porcine wound model which combines multiple factors involved in chronic wounds to create a contaminated necrotic eschar and evaluated the debriding efficacy of a novel bromelain based enzymatic debriding agent (EscharEx). ⋯ Our model simulates the initial phase of chronic wounds characterized by a contaminated necrotic eschar allowing evaluation of wound debriding agents, and that a bromelain-based debriding agent completely debrides the contaminated necrotic eschars within one week in this model.