Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Negative-pressure-wound-therapy (NPWT) has become a widely used tool for the coverage and active treatment of complex wounds, including burns. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of NPWT in acute burns of upper and lower extremities and to compare results to the standard-of-care (SOC) at our institution. ⋯ In this study, we found no significant difference between the two groups in terms of time to detect wound healing. We also found no difference regarding further operations for wound closure, pain and/or scarring. However, dressing changes were significantly less frequent for patients that were treated with NPWT, which may be a psychological and logistical advantage.
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Split-thickness skin graft (STSG)1 integration rates are susceptible to improvement. Infection and/or biofilm should be appropriately addressed prior to grafting to improve the likelihood of graft-take. Incorporating technological aids such as fluorescence (FL)2 imaging (MolecuLight®), which accurately locates areas of bacterial loads above 104 CFU/gr, for graft site assessment and preparation could yield better outcomes. ⋯ Level IIA, Therapeutic study.
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The aim of this study is to investigate the dynamic changes and interrelationships between leukocyte components and inflammatory markers in the early stages and sepsis stage in severe burns, and explore their potential clinical significance. ⋯ The results of this study revealed the dynamic interrelationships between leucocyte components and inflammatory indicators in the early stages and sepsis stage in severe burns, reflecting the different weightings of inflammatory responses and immune dysfunction in different disease stages and its correlation with outcomes, which providing useful clinical information for dynamic immunomodulatory therapy. Moreover, dynamic monitoring of MLPN value can provide timely information for clinical evaluation.
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An effective patient-reported outcome measure for scars is needed to assess scar treatments and thus improve scar management. The recently developed SCAR-Q questionnaire for all scar types, which consists of the Appearance, Symptom, and Psychosocial impact scales, has been developed with patients' input. The aim of this study was to translate the SCAR-Q into Finnish and to assess its psychometric properties in burn patients. ⋯ The Finnish version of the SCAR-Q is equivalent with the original scale, showed excellent internal consistency, factor analysis confirmed it for the Appearance and Psychosocial impact scale, and demonstrated good reliability with all subscales when used in assessing burn scars.