Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Global use of the internet has become commonplace, and smart phones have paved the way for technological mobility. Incorporation of smart phone technology has the potential to positively affect health outcomes through use of health-directed applications (apps), particularly for those patients living in medically underserved areas. The Bridge Mobile App for Burn Patients (fka: HealthySteps), is a pilot project that was developed to address the unique recovery needs of patients with major burn injuries who are being discharged from a regional burn center. ⋯ Original recovery-stage appropriate bio-psycho-social content, instructional videos and links to burn-supportive web sites are delivered directly to patients' smart phones for the first 90days following discharge. The primary goal for the Bridge App is to decrease unplanned hospital re-admissions, while supporting increased quality of life and resilience in short-term recovery. In addition, the Bridge Mobile App is designed to collect patient data reflecting pain, anxiety, mood, itching, medication compliance, social participation, self-efficacy and return to work on a password protected, HIPPA compliant, encrypted mainframe.
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Accurate depth assessment of burn wounds is a critical task to provide the right treatment and care. Currently, laser Doppler imaging is able to provide better accuracy compared to the standard clinical evaluation. However, its clinical applicability is limited by factors like scanning distance, time, and cost. ⋯ Histological results obtained from trichrome staining were used as ground-truth. The combined performance of RS-OCT reported an overall average accuracy of 85% and ROC-AUC=0.94, in distinguishing the burn wounds. The significant performance on ex vivo skin motivates to assess the feasibility of combined RS-OCT in in vivo models.
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Observational Study
Partial thickness wound: Does mechanism of injury influence healing?
Wound healing is a complex multistep process which is temporally and spatially controlled. In partial thickness wounds, regeneration is possible from the stem cells in the edges of the wound and from the remnants of the epidermal appendages (such as hair follicles and sebaceous glands). This study examines whether the mechanism of injury influences healing of wounds of similar depth. ⋯ The thickness of the dermis of partial thickness excisional scar was greater than that of the adjacent unwounded skin. The neo-dermis of the burn scar was even thicker, with the collagen arranged more compactly and disorganised compared to excisional scar and normal skin. This study provides evidence that the mechanism of injury does influence wound healing and the resultant scarring.