Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of early wound excision on changes in NO and endothelin-1 (ET-1) level in the plasma after extensive burn injury. The effects on vascular permeability and hepatic blood flow (HBF) were also assessed. Male Wistar rats were used for this study. ⋯ The sham group and the early excision group did not show significant changes in the NO and ET-1 level in plasma during experimental period, while the burn group and the infusion group showed significant increase in the NO and ET-1. The early excision group also did not show hypovolemia, and the significant decrease in the HBF. These data suggest that the increased NO and ET-1 in plasma following thermal injury were originated from burned tissue and the removal of these injured tissue has beneficial effect on the vascular permeability and the changes in HBF.
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The objective of this study is to review the incidence of severe burns and the complications of burns sepsis in Albanians. The data are from clinical records of the patients hospitalised in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Service of Burns, "Mother Teresa" University Hospital Center (UHC), Tirana, Albania during 2001. For the identification of sepsis in burned patients the classification of the American College of Chest Physicians/Society Critical Care Medicine (ACCP/SCCM) was used. ⋯ The study also identifies the pathogens responsible for the development of sepsis among patients. Such data was used to establish compound therapies focused on two or three antibiotics for each subject in order to treat sepsis and its possible complications. As a most important part of the treatment regime it is essential to identify patients at risk of sepsis, and to apply compound therapy with antibiotics in order to resist and treat this sepsis, which is the main cause of high mortality among our severely burned patients.
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This study was designed to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of death from burn injury in Korea. We recoded the death certificate database from 1991 to 2001 inclusive based on the short version of the International Classification of External Causes of Injuries (ICECI). Using variables such as sex, marital status, educational level, location of residence (metropolitan versus provincial), injury mechanism, and year, we calculated and compared the mortality rates and percentiles because of burn injury, and determined the adjusted odds ratio (OR) to assess the effect of socioeconomic factors on suicide deaths. ⋯ The mortality rate due to burn injury was 1.8 per 100,000 person-years in 2001, without long-term change from 1991. Major mechanisms of death included surface burns (80.7%), smoke inhalation (14.4%), respiratory burns (1.5%), and associated trauma (3.5%). The number of the suicide deaths was 466 from 1993 to 2001 inclusive, and the adjusted OR for suicide burns compared to accidental burns was significantly larger in the more highly educated, metropolitan, and married and divorced groups than it was in the never-attended-school, provincial, and never-married groups, respectively.
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Self-inflicted burns are a regular cause of admission to burn units. Historically, a full moon has been associated with mental instability. Circadian rhythms and seasonal changes are known to influence human affect. ⋯ In this regard, the results of a retrospective analysis of 184 self-inflicted burns admitted during a 20-year period to the Birmingham Burns Centre are presented. The analysis fails to show a connection between the timing of self-inflicted burns and cosmic events. Such incidents are random, not influenced by the day of the week, first or second half of the month, seasonal variation or phase of the lunar cycle.