Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Posttraumatic growth after burn is a relatively new area of study with only a small number of studies that have examined this phenomenon. It is important to understand the presentation of posttraumatic growth and coping in burn survivors, how it changes over time and the components which influence growth so that we can understand how to promote posttraumatic growth in burn survivors. The aim of this review was to assess these three parameters. ⋯ Suddenness of the event, and the severity and location of injury might affect the amount of growth experienced. Overall function, quality of life, social support and optimism, hope and new opportunities are influences on growth after burn, all of which have the potential for improvement through targeted intervention strategies. Further research is indicated in many areas related to growth, intervention and measurement.
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Descriptions of burns as the presenting features of underlying neurological pathology are very rare, with only two previously published case reports available. Both of these reports featured meningioma as the pre-existing pathology and both described burn excision and wound healing, prior to surgical tumour ablation. The authors describe the case of a 35-year-old female, who presented with 25% total body surface area burns and recent global neurological deterioration. ⋯ Burn excision and skin grafting was carried out successfully, two weeks later. This case differs from the previous two reported cases, which both described burn excision, as a pre-requisite to neurosurgery. This case establishes that the presence of a burn wound is not a total contra-indication to intracranial surgery.
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The introduction of ablative fractional CO2lasers (CO2-AFL) for burn scar management shows promising results. Whilst recent studies have focused on objective scar outcomes following CO2-AFL treatment, to date no data on patient subjective factors such as quality of life are available. ⋯ Our preliminary results confirm significant improvement in thickness, texture, colour, and symptoms following treatment with CO2-AFL. Foremost, quality of life of patients with both immature and mature scars (up to 23 years after injury) improved significantly after just one treatment session. To our knowledge, this is the first study to document such holistic treatment effects in burn patients treated by CO2-AFL.