Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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To review the literature on return to work (RTW) in patients with burns. ⋯ This review found that the severity of burn was the most significant barrier to RTW. Further research is required to explore physical and psychosocial interventions aimed at helping people with burns return to and sustain employment.
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To review the literature on return to work (RTW) in patients with burns. ⋯ This review found that the severity of burn was the most significant barrier to RTW. Further research is required to explore physical and psychosocial interventions aimed at helping people with burns return to and sustain employment.
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Severe facial burns cause significant deformities that are technically challenging to treat. Conventional treatments almost always result in poor aesthetic and functional outcomes. This is due to the fact that current treatments cover or replace the delicate anatomical facial tissues with autologus grafts and flaps from remote sites. ⋯ The psychosocial and ethical issues associated with this new treatment have some nuances but generally have many similarities with solid organ and more recently hand transplantation, both of which have been performed clinically for 40 and 10+ years respectively. Herein, we will discuss the technical and immunological aspects of facial tissue transplantation. The psychosocial and ethical issues will be discussed separately in another article in this issue.
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Mass casualty incidents involving victims with severe burns pose difficult and unique problems for both rescue teams and hospitals. This paper presents an analysis of the published reports with the aim of proposing a rational model for burn rescue and hospital referral for Switzerland. ⋯ Disaster preparedness plans involving burn specialists dispatched from a referral burn center can upgrade and significantly improve prehospital rescue outcome, initial resuscitation care and help prevent an overload to hospital surge capacities in case of multiple burn victims. This is the rationale behind the ongoing development and implementation of the Swiss burn plan.
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The virtues of silver as an antimicrobial agent have been known for some time. Various silver containing dressings are currently used for the treatment of wounds. Introduced in the late 1990s, Acticoat is a nanocrystalline silver dressing developed to overcome some shortcomings of the older dressings by providing sustained release of silver up to 7 days. ⋯ Other studies suggest Acticoat has fewer adverse effects and reduces healing times. Its ease of application and low frequency of change makes it an ideal dressing in burn wounds. More well designed and properly reported randomised controlled trials are essential for informed clinical decision-making.