Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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To describe the epidemiology of genital burns in the U.S. and investigate the underlying etiology. ⋯ Children sustain genital burns at a higher rate than adults and many appear to have a preventable mechanism. Improved product design for safety and educating caregivers about potential hazardous situations are needed.
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Majority of current research focuses on pre-hospital care in mass casualty incidents (MCI) whereas this study is the first to examine multifactorial aspects of intensive care unit (ICU) resource management during a surge in massive burn injury (MBI) patients whilst identifying key outcome predictors that resulted in successful disaster managements. ⋯ With ever increasing chances of terrorist activity in urban areas, hospitals can hopefully increase their preparedness using outcome-predictors presented in this study.
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A 12-year retrospective review of severe burn patients who received cultured epithelial autografts (CEA) at the Singapore General Hospital Burns Centre from January 2005 to December 2016 was carried out. During this period, two different surgical modalities were employed to manage these burn injuries. In the earlier period, following early excision of the burn wounds, exposed surfaces were covered with a combination of split thickness skin autografts (STSG) and allografts. ⋯ The average area amount of skin allografts used per patient in the M/CEA group was significantly lower compared to the STSG/C method group which contributed to lower total average cost of grafts used per % TBSA in the M/CEA method group. This might be attributed to the presence of micrografts which seemed to improve stabilization of the wound bed resulting in less operating procedures and improving CEA take. To conclude, the M/CEA method introduced was able to treat more severe burn patients at lower graft costs without compromising critical clinical outcomes significantly.
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Since 2003 we have used the scalp as a donor site for split skin grafts (SSGs) in major burns when there was a shortage of conventional donor areas. However, we seen a high incidence of complications, contrary to international experience. ⋯ Our study suggests that in pediatric patients of black African descent (hair types VI-VIII) the scalp is not an ideal donor area, due to the unacceptably high incidence of complications. Hence, every precaution should be taken when it becomes necessary to harvest donor skin from the scalp.
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Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is one of the most frequent forms of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) and can be used as rescue therapy in patients with severe respiratory failure resulting from burns and/or smoke inhalation injury. Experience and literature on this treatment option is still very limited, consequently results are varied. We report a retrospective analysis of our experience with veno-venous (VV) ECMO in burn patients. ⋯ VV-ECMO is a useful rescue intervention in patients with burns related severe respiratory failure. Patients in our institution benefit from having both burns and ECMO centres with major expertise in the field under one roof. The results from this small cohort are encouraging, although more cases are needed to draw more robust conclusions.