Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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As widely reported, the progress in burn care during recent decades has reduced the hospital mortality. The effect of the burns on long-term outcome has not received so much attention, and more study is indicated. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the long-time survival among patients who had been treated for burns. ⋯ Age and full-thickness burns reduce the long-time survival after discharge from the Burn Centre, whereas the effect of TBSA% and need for artificial ventilation ends with discharge.
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Case Reports
Importance of initial management and surgical treatment after hydrofluoric acid burn of the finger.
Occupational injuries to digits due to hydrofluoric acid (HFA) are frequently encountered. They have distinctive features, including intense pain, progressive tissue necrosis, and possible bone erosion. To minimize tissue damage, it is of great importance to execute prudent preoperative assessment and determine the correct surgical modality to reconstruct and maintain the function of the hand. ⋯ In conclusion, when a patient is admitted due to HFA exposure to the finger, early treatment including irrigation, topical neutralizers, and fasciotomy are of great importance to minimize tissue damage. In addition, a physician should wait at least 7days until the degree of damage to the tissue can be classified so that the physician can decide whether aggressive debridement should be proceeded. In case of deep layer injuries of weight bearing portions such as finger pulp, reconstruction techniques utilizing durable tissues such as partial second toe pulp free flap should be employed.
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Scarring is a significant consequence for patients following a burn. Understanding how patients perceive the physiological scar and define scar severity may provide valuable information regarding how the scar influences quality of life after burn. The Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale was the first scar assessment tool validated to include the patients' evaluation of the scars physical qualities, following a burn. Validation studies of this tool have previously been conducted for a discrete scar-site after burn. The aim of this study was to assess the structural validity of the POSAS to capture the patients' evaluation of the total area of burn scar(s). ⋯ When assessing the entire burn scar, three independent dimensions influence patient perception: (1) the physical scar, (2) pain and (3) itch. Within the physical domain, color formed a visual subdomain separate to a tactile subdomain. Further development of these domains within a high-order multi-dimensional structure is recommended.
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The primary goal of this study was to investigate convergent validity, i.e. overlapping constructs, of the Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B), the Short Form-36 items Health Survey (SF-36) and the European Quality Of Life Five Dimensions (EQ-5D) within the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) framework. A secondary goal was to examine the discriminant validity of the questionnaires according to burn severity (no surgery versus 1 or more surgeries). ⋯ This study demonstrates that the ICF is useful to classify scales in order to identify overlapping areas as well as to uncover gaps in relation to patient reported outcomes. Both the SF-36 and EQ-5D showed the ability to distinguish levels of functioning across burn severity groups. As the BSHS-B performed less well and relevant domains of functioning were not addressed, there is room for improvement and modification of this condition specific questionnaire to better capture burn patients' functioning.
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Bone changes are increasingly described after burn. How bone markers could help to detect early bone changes or to screen burn patients at higher risk of demineralization is still not made clear. We performed an observational study assessing the changes in serum bone markers after moderate burn. ⋯ Considering available data, role and interest of bone markers in management of burn related bone disease remain unclear.