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Injury 2020 Sep 10;51(9):2059-2065. Epub 2020 Jun 10.

University of Washington Burn Center, Harborview Medical Center, 325 Ninth Ave, Seattle, WA, 98104, USA.

Background: Escharotomy is the primary effective intervention to relieve constriction and impending vascular compromise in deep, circumferential or near-circumferential burns of the extremities and trunk. Training on escharotomy indications, technique and pitfalls is essential, as escharotomy is both an infrequent and high-risk procedure in civilian and military medical environments, including low-resource settings. Therefore, we aimed to validate an educational strategy that combines video-based instruction with a low-cost, low-fidelity simulation model for teaching burn escharotomy. Read More

Burns 2019 11 6;45(7):1685-1694. Epub 2019 May 6.

Department of Emergency and Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250033, China; School of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250012, China. Electronic address:

It is the basic task of burn therapy to cover the wound with self-healthy skin timely and effectively. However, for patients with extensive burns, autologous skin is usually insufficient, and allogenic or heterogeneous skin leads to strong immune response. It is vital to choose an appropriate treatment for deep extensive burns. Read More

Zhonghua Wei Zhong Bing Ji Jiu Yi Xue 2018 Dec;30(12):1196-1199

Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, the Affiliated Nanshi Hospital of Henan University, Nanyang 473065, Henan, China. Corresponding author: Wang Shuo, Email:

Objective: To retrospectively analyze the injury characteristics of victims and treatment strategies in the explosion accident on the 17th May 2018 in Xixia county (Xixia "May 17th" explosion accident).

Methods: Completion the Level Three treatment on time, which was depended on the leading role played by the regional trauma centers was the main rescuing mode of the work in Xixia county, where the primary and secondary treatments were the key parts. The three-level treatment model includes: the local hospital acts as a level-one emergency medical institution, county hospitals function as secondary emergency medical institutions, and other higher medical institutions are the tertiary first aid medical institutions. Read More

Ann Burns Fire Disasters 2017 Sep;30(3):198-204

Department of Plastic Surgery and Burn Unit, Soroka Medical Center, The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.

The objective was to critically review the data and assess the implications of NexoBrid [NexoBrid-NXB formerly Debrase Gel Dressing-DGD] in the special field of deep hand burns. Detailed analysis of endpoints in the treatment of hand burn patients was conducted as part of a multi-center, open label, randomized, controlled two-arm study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of NXB enzymatic debridement, comparing it to the current standard of care (SOC). These results were compared to a large cohort of patients treated with NXB in a previous, single arm study. Read More

Ann Burns Fire Disasters 2017 Sep;30(3):193-197

Paris Diderot University, Plastic, Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery Department, Burn Centre, Paris, France.

Compartment syndrome is a serious complication of high voltage electrical burns, limb carbonization and deep circular burns with delayed escharotomy. Without treatment, ischemic tissue damage leads to irreversible necrosis. Treatment is emergency surgical decompression. Read More

Burns 2018 06 1;44(4):947-955. Epub 2018 Feb 1.

The Burn Unit, Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa; The Division of Paediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Background: Telemedicine is increasingly applied in developed settings to facilitate transfer of information to and from burn surgeons across vast geographic areas. WhatsApp is a widely available and extremely user-friendly encrypted smartphone application that does not require the expensive physical and personnel infrastructure that characterizes many of these telemedicine systems. The aim of this study was to review the use of WhatsApp to facilitate paediatric burn injury consultations to a regional burn centre in a developing country, where burn care continues to be thwarted by administrative apathy, poor resource allocation and lack of attention to medical and nursing education at all levels. Read More

Burns 2018 03 18;44(2):350-358. Epub 2017 Aug 18.

Department of Emergency and Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250033, China. Electronic address:

Objective: In the field of burns repairs, many problems exist in the shortage of donor skin, the expense of allograft or xenograft skin, temporary substitution and unsatisfactory extremity function after wound healing. Previous studies showed that burn-denatured skin could return to normal dermis formation and function. This study investigates the application of laser micro-pore burn-denatured acellular dermis matrix (DADM) from an escharotomy in the repair of burn wounds and evaluates the biological properties and wound repair effects of DADM in implantation experiments in Kunming mice. Read More

Emerg Med Australas 2017 Aug 1;29(4):438-443. Epub 2017 Jun 1.

Greater Sydney Area Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe patient demographics, injuries, physiology and interventions performed by retrieval physicians in the care of burns patients in both a pre-hospital and interhospital setting.

Methods: A retrospective review of patient records from a large Australian Helicopter Emergency Medical Service was conducted. Demographics, injury, burn type, physiology and intervention data were extracted into a database for statistical analysis. Read More

Ann Burns Fire Disasters 2015 Dec;28(4):264-274

Department of emergency medicine, Stony brook University, Stony brook, nY.

Current surgical and non-surgical eschar removal-debridement techniques are invasive or ineffective. A bromelainbased rapid and selective enzymatic debriding agent was developed to overcome these disadvantages and compared with the standard of care (SOC). The safety and efficacy of a novel Debriding Gel Dressing (DGD) was determined in patients with deep partial and full thickness burns covering up to 67% total body surface area (TBSA). Read More

B-ENT 2016;Suppl 26(1):107-126

Management of burn wounds of the head and neck region. Management of the severely burned patient is ery often a challenge, not only due to major disturbances in anatomy and physiological processes, but also because the relatively low incidence of this pathology in both civilian and military practice results in care providers'lack of experience. The purpose of this educational document is to provide doctors confronted with these formidable trauma patients with basic management guidelines as well as some practical tips. Read More

J Burn Care Res 2016 Mar-Apr;37(2):e140-4

From the *Department of General Surgery, †Center for Applied Learning, Wake Forest Innovations, and ‡Department of Plastic Surgery, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Severe burn injuries can require escharotomies which are urgent, infrequent, and relatively high-risk procedures necessary to preserve limb perfusion and sometimes ventilation. The American Burn Association Advanced Burn Life Support© course educates surgeons and emergency providers about escharotomy incisions but lacks a biomimetic trainer to demonstrate, practice, or provide assessment. The goal was to build an affordable biomimetic trainer with discrete points of failure and pilot a validation study. Read More

Ann Burns Fire Disasters 2014 Mar;27(1):31-6

Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismalia, Egypt.

The management of burns within the first hours of injury has a significant impact on mortality and morbidity. In case of burns disasters, most patients are managed by non-burn practitioners. The knowledge held by our local family physicians is thought to be representative of that of non-burn practitioners, as they had not partaken in any courses or training on burn management beyond graduation. Read More

Burns 2014 May 26;40(3):466-74. Epub 2013 Sep 26.

Department of Emergency Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States. Electronic address:

Objectives: Excisional debridement followed by autografting is the standard of care (SOC) for deep burns, but is associated with serious potential complications. Conservative, non-surgical and current enzymatic debridement methods are inefficiently slow. We determined whether a non-surgical option of rapid enzymatic debridement with the debriding enzyme NexoBrid™ (NXB) would reduce need for surgery while achieving similar esthetic and functional outcomes as SOC. Read More

Ann Burns Fire Disasters 2013 Mar;26(1):40-3

Plastic Surgery Unit, Department of Surgical Specialties, Messina University Hospital, Messina, Italy.

Cement is a fine powder used to bind sand and stones into a matrix of concrete, making up the world's most frequently used building material in the construction industry. First described by Ramazzini in his book "De Morbis Artificia Diatriba" in 1700, the effect of cement on the skin was presumed to be due to contact dermatitis. The first cement burns case was published by Rowe and Williams in 1963. Read More

Pediatr Emerg Care 2013 Jun;29(6):737-40

Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Dana-Dwek Children's Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel.

A retrospective review of all patients admitted between February 2004 and December 2009, with a diagnosis of burns associated with electrocution, was conducted at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Data regarding type of electrocution and associated burns were collected. Of the 36 patients identified, 31 (86%) were shocked by electrical current, and 5 (14%) by lightning. Read More

Prehosp Emerg Care 2010 Jul-Sep;14(3):349-54

Department of Emergency Medicine, Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pennsylvania 17822-2005, USA.

Initial care for the burned trauma patient focuses on the rapid assessment and stabilization of airway, breathing, and circulation. Circumferential chest burns may restrict respiratory effort and inhibit adequate ventilation. When this occurs, chest escharotomy is the recommended treatment to restore chest expansion and therefore ventilation. Read More

Ulus Travma Acil Cerrahi Derg 2006 Oct;12(4):326-30

Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Medicine Faculty of Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey.

We present the management and survival of an eight-year-old boy with a severe high-tension electrical burn injury of 68% of total body surface area in a surgical intensive care unit, as a result of a well-planned and applied treatment strategy. Subsequent to escharotomy and fasciotomy operations under general anesthesia, the patient was taken into the surgical intensive care unit. In addition, patient underwent nine more operations including right femur disarticulation and split-thickness skin graftings with homografts from his brother and autografts. Read More

Am Surg 2005 Mar;71(3):210-5

University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Burn Center, Miami, Florida, USA.

The purpose of this study was to review our experience with a mass casualty incident resulting from a boiler room steam explosion aboard a cruise ship. Experience with major, moderate, and minor burns, steam inhalation, mass casualty response systems, and psychological sequelae will be discussed. Fifteen cruise ship employees were brought to the burn center after a boiler room explosion on a cruise ship. Read More

Scand J Plast Reconstr Surg Hand Surg 2003 ;37(3):134-9

Department of Plastic Surgery, Institute for Surgical Sciences, Göteborg University, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden.

Just before midnight on the 29 October 1998 the on-call plastic surgeons were alarmed because of a fire accident thought to involve a few burned patients. Quite soon the information suggested an in-door fire disaster in which many of the 400 young people visiting a disco were caught by a rapidly spreading fire. A cross-sectional survey of the resulting overload, triage and initial treatment of burns was analysed. Read More

Acta Chir Plast 1996 ;38(4):137-41

Clinic for Burns, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Injuries caused by high-tension electrical current are rare, but pathophysiologically unique with destructive effects. As a form of thermal trauma, electrical injuries represent a connection of skin burns and deep tissue destruction unpredictable in its depth which mostly resembles a crush injury. Emergency treatment measures begin with the separation from the electrical contact if any and prompt transport to the nearest institution with all means for cardiorespiratory resuscitation and complete recovery. Read More

Zhonghua Zheng Xing Shao Shang Wai Ke Za Zhi 1989 Jun;5(2):87-8, 156

Treatment and result of burned total hand was reported here in 4 hands (4 cases). According to the treatment and anatomical characteristics, burned hand was divided into 4 areas: dorsum of hand, dorsum of finger, thenar-wrist area and volar-digit area. The treatment of total hand in third degree burns included emergency escharotomy of hand and digits, early escharotomy and immediate skin grafting on the dorsum of hand, thenar-wrist and volar-digit area. Read More