Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Since burns affect body image, they cause appearance anxiety. Interventions designed to reduce appearance anxiety that can cause psychological problems such as depression are important. This study aimed to determine the social appearance anxiety of individuals following burns and the factors affecting it and to examine the relationship between social appearance anxiety and perceived social support. ⋯ The results of this study show that social support does not affect social appearance anxiety. In this respect, we recommend that interventions such as reconstruction and professional psychological support initiatives be prioritized for individuals with burn trauma who are evaluated to have high social appearance anxiety by the appearance anxiety scales.
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Our regional burns service has gained experience in managing paediatric hand friction burns due to vacuum cleaners (VC). We aimed to evaluate our 10 year experience managing these injuries as well as reviewing national data trends in order to identify those at risk of injury.
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A critical need exists for early, accurate diagnosis of burn wound severity to help identify the course of treatment and outcome of the wound. Laser speckle imaging (LSI) is a promising blood perfusion imaging approach, but it does not account for changes in tissue optical properties that can occur with burn wounds, which are highly dynamic environments. Here, we studied optical property dynamics following burn injury and debridement and the associated impact on interpretation of LSI measurements of skin perfusion. ⋯ SFDI measurements demonstrate that optical properties change in response to burn injury in a porcine model. We then apply theoretical modeling to demonstrate that the measured range of optical property changes can affect the interpretation of LSI measurements of blood flow, but this effect is minimal for most of the measured data. Collectively, our results indicate that, even with a dynamic burn wound environment, blood-flow measurements with LSI can serve as an appropriate strategy for accurate assessment of burn severity.
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Although burns most often result in negative psychological consequences, some studies have identified self-reported, positive psychological growth after such injuries. Post-traumatic growth is a positive psychological change in which an individual develops stronger functioning, beliefs, and values following a trauma. To date, no quantitative analysis has been done of post-traumatic growth in young adult burn survivors. ⋯ Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that change in a family relationship after the burn experience, treatment situation, and level of interpersonal relationship skills, were statistically significant in young adult burn survivors' post-traumatic growth. Results support good interpersonal relationship skills and positive family relationships appear to facilitate the positive growth after burn experience. Clinical implications are presented in the discussion.
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Observational Study
ABO blood group and effects on ventilatory time, length of stay and mortality in major burns a retrospective observational outcome study.
A total of 225 patients were included (2008-2019) with median TBSA of 26%; interquartile range (IQR) of 20-37%; median age 45 years (IQR 22-65 years); median Baux score (age + TBSA%); 76 (IQR 53- 97); 168 (75%) were male; median duration of hospital stay was 31 days (IQR 19-56); a total of 138 (61%) received treatment with mechanical ventilation; and 29 (13%) died. In a multivariable regression model, we were unable to isolate any significant effect of any blood group (O, A, B, AB) on the outcome measures studied (ventilatory time, LOS, and mortality). IN ⋯ contrary to many other major areas of disease in which ABO blood groups affect outcome, we were unable to find any such effect on patients with burns. Given the precision of the outcome models presented (AUC 0.93) any such an effect, if missed due to the limited study cohort, may be considered limited and to have only a minor clinical impact.