Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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International burn societies in many parts of the world have created electronic registries of burn centers in their region. No such directory exists for the continent of Africa. ⋯ This is the first known online directory of burn sites in Africa. Significant challenges exist identifying burn care providers in large portions of the continent.
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Burns are a significant source of pediatric morbidity and frequently result in transfer of care to a pediatric burn center. Data suggest that referring facilities often overestimate the total body surface area (%TBSA) of burns in comparison to the subsequent assessment at the pediatric burn center. Such discrepancies may trigger inappropriately aggressive interventions with potential for patient harm. Our baseline assessment of data from 106 patients transferred to our pediatric burn center over a one-year period showed that 59/106 (56%) patients had a %TBSA recorded at the time of transfer and 18/59 (31%) had clinically significant differences (>5% difference) in estimates between the referring facility and the pediatric burn center. ⋯ Referring facilities often overestimate the %TBSA in comparison to the subsequent assessment at the pediatric burn center. The consistency of the %TBSA estimates can be improved by interventions that utilize the sharing of a common clinical assessment instrument and standardization of the transfer intake process.
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The emotional impact after a child's burn injury is poorly understood. Greater insight into the emotional journey can aid services' ability to meet patients/families' needs. To bridge the gap, this study employed an abbreviated form of Experience Based Co-Design (EBCD) to explore the emotional/experiential aspects of moderate to severe burn injuries in children. ⋯ EBCD facilitated collaborative discussion between researchers, families and health professionals. Families felt empowered to shape the future of burn care and health professionals felt included. Study challenges were mainly in participant engagement and the scheduling of interviews and the focus event. Overall the study outcome was successful in generating ideas for service improvements, and the production of a training video for healthcare professionals.
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Scar often occurred during wound repair. It was known that there were differences in collagen structure in dermal tissues at millimeter scale and micron scale, however, it was not known whether there were differences in collagen structure in dermal tissues at nanoscale during wound repair. In order to compare the difference at nanoscale, skin samples from patients were selected, the control groups were the normal skin from the same patients. ⋯ The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used as a comparison. The results showed that there were not only significantly differences between the normal tissue and scar tissue, but also between the center and the margin of the scar tissue at nanoscale by SAXS and WAXS, which was not demonstrated by other studies. These findings demonstrated that the SAXS and WAXS were excellent tools to detect the collagen structure at nanoscale and the orientation of the collagen alignment, which was beneficial for skin tissue engineering and skin regenerative medicine.
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This qualitative study aims to explore former burn patients' perception of burn-specific health and investigate how these experiences correspond to the subscales in the Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B). ⋯ The BSHS-B alone may not be sufficient in providing a comprehensive picture of former burn patients' self-perceived health in the long-term perspective. Investigating supplementary areas reflecting former patients' sociocultural and attitudinal environment, as well as personal factors, may be of great importance.