British journal of plastic surgery
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Adequate acute treatment of the deeply burned hand and any subsequent reconstructive procedures may be hampered by the lack of sufficient suitable graft material and the risks of donor site morbidity and scarring. This investigation was designed to determine the feasibility of treating deep hand burns using a dermal regeneration template. Patients with deep hand burns underwent either acute treatment or reconstructive procedures with Integra dermal regeneration template. ⋯ Cosmetic results of acute surgery were judged satisfactory by both patients and surgeons. After reconstructive procedures, significant improvements were achieved in cosmetic status, based on Vancouver Scar Scale (p=0.0002), and in three measures of function, namely, thumb opposition score (p=0.0005), fingertip-to-palm distance (p=0.0039) and prehensile score (p=0.0039). Favourable cosmetic and functional outcomes were consistently attained using a synthetic dermal regeneration template for treatment of deep hand burns either by acute grafting or reconstructive surgery.