Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) are becoming common and effective in acute and critical care settings recently. Burn patients need special considerations because of restricted insertion sites, burn wounds, hyper coagulation, high infection rates and others. However, the safety of PICCs in burn patients are not well elucidated and no related protocol has been formed. This study aims to investigate the thrombosis and infections of PICCs in burn patients. ⋯ PICCs in burn patients had acceptable incidence of UEVT and CLABSI with relative long line durations. A standardized PICC guideline for burn patients is required to further improve the feasibility and safety of PICCs.
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Observational Study
Bismuth/petroleum gauze plus high density polyethylene vs. bismuth/petroleum gauze: A comparison of donor site healing and patient comfort.
Skin grafting continues to be a fundamental component of burn treatment and inherently, a donor site must be created and treated. Burn surgeons agree that specific dressings may have a significant affect on donor site healing, but we have no consensus as to which dressing provides maximum benefit. ⋯ Clinically and subjectively, we found no discernible differences between the 2 dressing regimens. Thus, bismuth/petroleum gauze alone is the more cost effective dressing choice. Our burn center continues to use bismuth/petroleum gauze alone as its standard of care for donor site dressings and will continue to try to define the optimal donor site dressing.
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Various studies have reported discordant results on the magnitude and direction of burn-induced coagulopathy (BIC), which has recently been associated with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and death. The increased mechanistic understanding of BIC is due, in part, to novel assays that have expanded the armamentarium beyond traditional tests like PT and aPTT. Still, BIC is a dynamic process, and the progression is difficult to define in the thermally-injured. ⋯ Taken together, novel coagulation parameters may be more sensitive than PT in characterizing coagulopathy in the setting of burns. The data presented herein makes initial strides to report the natural history of several of these variables over time in a large animal model of extensive burns, indicating early hypercoagulability followed by hypocoagulation. Future work will elucidate the effects of standard of care.
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To describe the course of the outbreak and infection control measures to stop the spread of sequence type 15 OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter baumannii in the Burn Center of Uppsala University Hospital, between November 2014 and the end of April 2015. ⋯ Higher awareness and increased compliance with hand hygiene and dress code as well as intensified cleaning protocols of the environment and equipment were successfully established and likely to have led to stop the spread of sequence type 15 OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter baumannii.
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Amputation outcome after heat press injury is associated with insufficient perfusion. We aimed to determine other risk factors for heat press injury and mechanisms of insufficient perfusion associated with amputation. ⋯ The study showed some correlations. Inflammation variables, D-dimer, and CK were associated with amputation and perfusion after heat press injury. Several factors were associated with amputation, including RDW-SD increase in insufficiently perfused patients within 48 h of injury, and NLR increase and L% decrease in patients after 48 h post-injury.