Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Burns are frequently seen and managed in non-specialist settings. The crowding of the UK medical undergraduate curriculum may have resulted in the reduction of teaching on burns. ⋯ There seems to be a lack of consistent undergraduate training in burns management and final year students lack the experience and knowledge to initially manage burns.
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The cost of the treatment of burns is high especially in self-inflicted burns with prolonged treatment. We performed a retrospective review of the self-inflicted burns at our regional burns centre to determine the costs incurred in their management and to identify factors which could reduce the financial burden in the future. ⋯ Burns are preventable injuries, early detection and intervention in patients with propensity to self-inflict burns can possibly reduce the costs of treatment in the future.
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Autologous cell-spray grafting of non-cultured epidermal cells is an innovative approach for the treatment of severe second-degree burns. After treatment, wounds are covered with dressings that are widely used in wound care management; however, little is known about the effects of wound dressings on individually isolated cells. The sprayed cells have to actively attach, spread, proliferate, and migrate in the wound for successful re-epithelialization, during the healing process. ⋯ In a second experiment, the same dressings were exposed to pre-cultured cells in order to exclude the effects of attachment and spreading. The results confirm the above findings. This study could be of interest for establishing skin cell grafting therapies in burn medicine and also for wound care in general.
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The aim of this study was to examine the indirect economic burden of fire-related deaths in Finland in the period 2000-2010. ⋯ Total productivity loss in the period 2000-2010 was c.a. EUR 342 million (CI: 330-354 million), giving an annual average of EUR 31.1 million (CI: 30.0-32.2 million), with the mean for a victim being EUR 0.315 million (CI: 0.30-0.33 million). The economic burden of deaths is considerable and this study remedies the lack of academic knowledge about the burden of fire-related deaths.
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On 5 July 2014, a suicide terrorist set a crowded bus on fire in Hangzhou, injuring 33 passengers. Among these, 19 adult victims with the most severe burns were triaged to our center. This is a single-center, descriptive study recording the prehospital response and in-hospital treatment of these patients. ⋯ Adequate preparation, including planning and disaster drills, is crucial for handling mass casualty events. Efficient and precise first rescue and triage can reduce prehospital mortality, and burn-centered multidisciplinary care and hospital-government cooperation helps reduce in-hospital mortality. Nevertheless, lessons can be drawn from this incident to be better prepared for future disasters.