Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
-
To review and discuss the existing research on the pathophysiology, impact and management of inhalational injury on the larynx and lower respiratory tract. ⋯ With advances in acute medical and surgical management of burn and inhalational injury, airway injury is an important secondary outcome with lasting impact. Awareness of these potential complications and early involvement of medical and allied health team are important steps in improving patient care. A multi-disciplinary approach to management will optimise the short and long-term morbidity management and ultimately our patients' quality of life.
-
Multicenter Study
Health related quality of life 5-7 years after minor and severe burn injuries: a multicentre cross-sectional study.
Burn injury can affect health-related quality of life (HRQL). Knowledge concerning long-term HRQL in burn patients is limited. Therefore our aim was to evaluate long-term HRQL and to study predictors of impaired long-term HRQL. ⋯ The majority of patients experienced some problems with HRQL 5-7 years post burn. This emphasizes that burns can have a negative impact on an individual's HRQL, particularly in more severely burned patients, that persists for years. The HRQL dimensions most frequently affected include pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. Patients with a prolonged hospital stay, females and older patients are at higher risk of poor HRQL in the long-term.
-
Little is known concerning the factors associated with in-hospital mortality of trauma patients in resource-constrained settings, not least in burns centres. We investigated this question in the adult burns centre at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. We further assessed whether the Abbreviated Burn Severity Index (ABSI) is an accurate predictive score of mortality in this setting. ⋯ In this specialised centre, mortality occurs in one in five patients. It is associated with a few clinical parameters, and can be predicted using the ABSI score.
-
Research into the treatment of hypertrophic burn scar is hampered by the variability and subjectivity of existing outcome measures. This study aims to measure the inter- and intra-rater reliability of a panel of subjective and objective burn scar measurement tools. ⋯ The objective scar measures demonstrated acceptable to excellent intra- and inter-rater reliability and performed better than the subjective scar scales.