Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Previous clinical observations have suggested that the application of glycerol-preserved donor skin as a temporary wound dressing provokes a weaker rejection reaction than fresh, vital donor skin. Like others, we frequently observed that considerable parts of the allodermis not only remained on the wound for an extended period of time, but even became re-epithelialized in some cases. ⋯ The immunological reaction after grafting vital DA-skin, glycerolized DA-skin onto Lewis rats, and vital as well as glycerolized Lewis-skin onto Lewis rats was compared. The results of these experiments do not support the clinical observations that the glycerolization procedure results in decreased immunogenicity of donor skin.
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The use of silastic foam as a surgical dressing in 15 children with full thickness burns to the hand is described. Silastic foam is a safe, easy and effective means of dressing the hand following surgery. It is rigid enough to act as a splint, and at the same time is deformable and accommodates postoperative swelling.
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Case Reports
Electrical burns caused by fishing rod contact with overhead electric cables: a potential hazard to fishermen.
Three patients were admitted to the Burns Unit at Newcastle General Hospital suffering from varying degrees of electrical burn injuries. All were fishermen whose injuries had been caused by their highly conductive carbon fibre fishing rods touching overhead high voltage electrical cables. This paper also describes the information available to fishermen to assist in the prevention of this type of injury.
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A short-term, prospective study, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, was designed to determine the practical, psychological and social implications of thermal injury resulting in scarring, for the mothers of thermally injured children, during the 6 months following the child's discharge from hospital. Mothers of 57 thermally injured children under 5 years of age were interviewed whilst the child was in hospital and at home, at 1 week, 2 months and 6 months following hospital discharge. Thermal injuries ranged from 1 to 41 per cent of body surface area and all required skin grafting. ⋯ The mean of the mothers' total GHQ scores was 2.42 for the retrospective, pre-injury score, 24.5 at the hospital interview and 5.96 at 6 months following the child's discharge from hospital. In conclusion, the mother is a neglected victim of a young child's thermal injury. Use of the MTIRP as an educational tool for carers would promote increased understanding and, thus, more appropriate support.