Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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This study examines adult safety knowledge and practices regarding the use of paraffin cooking appliances. The use of these is common in South Africa with injury risks that are poorly understood. This cross-sectional study was in an informal settlement in Johannesburg, South Africa, where children were reportedly at high risk for burns. ⋯ Households where children were in greater proximity to cooking were 6 times more likely to be left alone at home, with caregivers with no education over 100 times more likely to lock their children at home. Children locked in were often from homes where caregivers used appliances unsafely. In settings with hazardous energy use, compressed household configurations, and families with multiple children, Risky Stove Use and the practice of locking children in the home may be catastrophic.
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Despite major advances in therapeutic strategies for the management of patients with severe burns, significant morbidity and mortality is observed. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) increases the supply of oxygen to burn areas. The aim of this study was to determine whether HBOT is effective in the treatment of major thermal burns. ⋯ Multidisciplinary burn care combined with adjunctive HBOT improves sepsis control compared with standard treatment without HBOT. Prospective studies are required to define the role of HBOT in extensive burns.
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Partial thickness burns of up to 10% total body surface area (TBSA) in children are common injuries primarily treated in the outpatient setting using expensive silver-containing dressings. However, economic evaluations in the paediatric burns population are lacking to assist healthcare providers when choosing which dressing to use. The aim of this study was to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of three silver dressings for partial thickness burns ≤10% TBSA in children aged 0-15 years using days to full wound re-epithelialization as the health outcome. ⋯ This economic evaluation has demonstrated that Mepilex Ag™ was the dominant dressing choice over both Acticoat™ and Acticoat™ with Mepitel™ in this trial-based economic evaluation and is recommended for treatment of paediatric partial thickness burns ≤10% TBSA.
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It is important to minimize time to healing in the donor site after split-thickness skin grafting (STSG). It has been shown that minced skin grafting improves the appearance of the STSG donor site. The objective of this study was to investigate whether mincing the leftover harvested skin and grafting it back onto the donor site during minced grafting (MG) reduces healing time of the donor site. ⋯ MG of the STSG donor site reduced the average time to healing by approximately 4days (9.1 vs. 13.2). This effect was independent from the size of the donor site and MG/STSG mass ratio. This procedure, which makes use of skin leftovers after skin grafting, should be performed prior to applying wound covering material as a means of reducing time to healing and level of patient's discomfort.
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Often discovered late during the clinical course of burns, bone loss is widely accepted by clinicians as a de facto consequence of burn. Literature on this bone loss is limited and contradictory in details. More insight into the prevalence and magnitude of bone loss may facilitate its prevention. ⋯ Total femur and femoral neck T-scores exhibited a significant similar pattern with smaller differences across the two groups. The density scores also showed a significant reverse relationship to the total body surface area (TBSA) of burn (P<0.003). Our results indicate that thermal burn victims have lower bone density and higher prevalence of osteoporosis than their healthy counterparts and that this difference is significant enough to justify screening in these patients which requires further longitudinal studies to institute.