Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Of 4357 home accidents in a 1-year period related to products, a total of 338 burn injuries were prospectively studied with respect to age, sex, the time and cause of the burn accident and the product involved in the burn injury. The survey showed the highest incidence (26 per cent) in the age group 0-5 years and that most burns were caused by scalds or contact. ⋯ Activities related to cooking and making/drinking hot beverages constitute the majority of the domestic burns. A trend of more burns occurring during the weekends and the dark winter was found, but monthly or seasonal differences were not significant (0.10 less than P less than 0.20 and 0.20 less than P less than 0.30).
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A prospective study was conducted on paediatric thermal injury patients admitted to the Burns Unit at King Fahd Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia over a 2-year period (December 1985 to December 1987). A total of 197 patients (out of 319) were paediatric, aged up to 18 years. Infants and toddlers accounted for 59.4 per cent and adolescents for 14.2 per cent. Scalding and flame injuries accounted for 98 per cent with most injuries occurring at home (97.5 per cent) and the overall paediatric mortality rate was 4.4 per cent.
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Five children who suffered burns clinically regarded as full skin thickness loss were grafted with cultured allogeneic skin from newborn prepuce. The wounds had remained open and infected without healing for about 20 days before the patients were received in the burn unit. To avoid losing surviving deep epidermal cells the wounds were débrided but not deeply excised and, a few days before allografting, they were washed with isodine solution and sterile water, and treated with silvadene cream application. ⋯ On the other hand, since allografting is an adequate therapy to provide early temporary coverage in extensively burned patients, we developed conditions for banking cultured skin to make it available for immediate use. The conditions described allow banking of the cultured grafts for 15-20 days with retention of clonal growth ability similar to that of unstored epithelia. The results show that cultured epidermal cells obtained from human newborn foreskin, when used as allografts for coverage of full skin or deep partial skin thickness burns, allow rapid epithelization of the burn wounds.
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A reproducible deep partial skin thickness burn model using guinea-pigs to study the healing process of this injury is described. Round aluminium templates heated to 75 degrees C and applied for 5 s to the moistened, clipped and depilated dorsal skin produced the desired depth of injury. This model is applicable for the study of the three main components of the burn wound healing process: epithelialization, contraction and scar formation. It is recommended that the India ink injection technique be used to confirm the depth of the burn wound.