Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Primitive man's discovery and use of fire had a tremendous impact on modern development. It changed lifestyles, and brought with it new fuel sources and cooking methods. It also introduced devastation, injury, pain, disfigurement, and loss of life, and the need to continuously develop management, training and prevention programs.
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Comparative Study
A comparison of the epidemiology of paediatric burns in Scotland and South Africa.
In South Africa burns affect 3.2% of the population annually and are particularly common among children. In Scotland paediatric burns are generally much less common and less severe. This study aimed to explore the epidemiological differences in the emergency presentation of paediatric burns in the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (RACH) in Scotland and the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (RXH) in Cape Town. ⋯ At RACH 89% children were discharged immediately, whereas 49% of RXH patients were admitted to the burn unit. Paediatric burns are more common and generally more severe in Cape Town than in Aberdeen. All children have the right to a safe environment and protection from harm; to reduce the high burns incidence in Cape Town preventative strategies should be targeted at creating safer homes.
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The Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS) is used to judge scars and involves patients and caregivers. Although the opinions of both are integrated, agreement between them is poorly investigated, especially in donor site scars (DSSs). Furthermore, it is unknown which POSAS-items are mostly associated with overall cosmetic satisfaction with the scar. ⋯ Patients and caregivers appreciate different aspects of scar characteristics using the POSAS. This calls for shared decision-making, in which patient opinions are incorporated in the treatment choice.
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Despite many educational campaigns we still see burns caused by methylated spirit every year. We undertook a retrospective study to analyse the impact of this problem. ⋯ The use of methylated spirit is an ongoing problem, which continues to cause severe burns in adults and children. Therefore methylated spirit should be banned in households. We suggest sale only in specialised shops, clear labelling and mandatory warnings.
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Intestinal barrier damage after scald and burns, other trauma or major operations result in severe intestinal infections that cause serious consequences. Therefore, it is important to develop methods to protect intestinal barrier after severe burns. ⋯ All the indices including body weight detected in GIK group were improved to those in insulin group. Taken together, these results show that GIK and insulin show protective effect on intestine after severe burn, which may relate to controlling hyperglycaemia and regulating intestinal expression of NFκB and pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine genes by GIK and insulin; the protective effect of GIK on intestinal tissue after severe burn is superior to that of using insulin alone, which may attribute to improving the nutritional status by glucose supplement and the relatively higher dose of insulin in the GIK group.