Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Burn care is demanding and time intensive. After initial evaluation and treatment, remote follow-up of suitable patients might reduce the on-site workload and efficiency. In this study, the reliability of telemedicine assessment of burn patients and preference of patients to use telemedicine was investigated. ⋯ In the assessment of burn wounds, telemedicine and face-to-face examination resulted in agreement in terms of burn depth, decision of hospitalization and percentage of total body surface area. Although WhatsApp is a reliable method, the majority of patients preferred a face-to-face follow-up. WhatsApp application can be used in remote follow up of eligible burn patients after giving brief information about the procedure.
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Burn injury can dramatically deteriorate health-related quality of life. Effective burn care may minimize the impact of the burn injury and ensure optimal functional outcome. This requires continuous improvement in burn care and assessment of treatment results. The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt and linguistically validate the CARe Burn Scale-Adult Form, a burn-specific patient-reported outcome measure, into Finnish. ⋯ The Finnish version is the first foreign translation of the CARe Burn Scale. It is equivalent to the original Scale and ready for psychometric validation with burn patients in Finland.
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An emerging amount of literature emphasises the ever-growing shortage of burn surgeons worldwide. Despite burn surgery being a fundamental competency in the Australia and New Zealand plastic and reconstructive surgery training curriculum, a perceived lack of interest amongst trainees exists. The aim of this study was to investigate Australasian plastic surgery trainees' interest in burn surgery as a career and compare with the Brown and Mills survey in 2004. ⋯ Interest in burn surgery has improved over the last 17 years and the most common deterrents persist, namely nature of burn operations, nature of burn care and on-call commitments. However, many of these issues are modifiable or amenable to change. The opportunity exists for relevant stakeholders to address some of these concerns raised, and thereby addressing the issue of burn surgeon shortage.
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Acute pain is prevalent following burn injury and can often transition to chronic pain. Prolonged acute pain is an important risk factor for chronic pain and there is little preclinical research to address this problem. Using a mouse model of second-degree burn, we investigated whether pre-existing stress influences pain(sensitivity) after a burn injury. ⋯ No differences were observed regarding thermal sensitivities between strains. Our results support the view that stress exposure prior to burn injury affects mechanical and thermal thresholds and may be relevant to as a risk factor for the transition from acute to chronic pain. Finally, genetic differences may play a key role in modality-specific recovery following burn injury.