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Aim: The aim was to compare two dressing treatments for partial-thickness burns: biosynthetic cellulose dressing (BsC) (Epiprotect (R) S2Medical AB, Linkoping, Sweden) and porcine xenograft (EZ Derm (R), Molnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden). Methods: Twenty-four adults with partial-thickness burns were included in this randomized clinical trial conducted at The Burn Centers in Linkoping and Uppsala, Sweden between June 2016 and November 2018. Time to healing was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes were wound infection, pain, impact on everyday life, length of hospital stay, cost, and burn scar outcome (evaluated with POSAS). Results: We found no significant differences between the two dressing groups regarding time to healing, wound infection, pain, impact on everyday life, duration of hospital stay, cost, or burn scar outcome at the first follow up. Burn scar outcome at the 12-month follow up showed that the porcine xenograft group patients scored their scars higher on the POSAS items thickness (p = 0.048) and relief (p = 0.050). This difference was, however, not confirmed by the observer. Conclusions: The results showed the dressings performed similarly when used in adults with burns evaluated as partial thickness. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Introduction As compared to younger adults, older people have a greater risk of domestic accidents, such as burns, and their prognosis is worsened by a diminished physiological ability to face a thermal trauma. The in-hospital mortality is adversely affected by old age and burn size, whereas less is known about the long-term-survival in elderly patients who survive a burn injury. The aim of this study was to investigate if elderly burn patients after discharge from a Swedish National Burn Centre have a shorter remaining life compared to the national population, by using calculated remaining Life Expectancy (rLE). Methods In this retrospective study we included all patients who were admitted for burns to the Linkoping Burn Centre during 1993–2016 and who were 60 years or older and alive, at the time of discharge. The control group was extracted from Statistics Sweden, the national statistics database, and consisted of all individuals from the Swedish population matched for each patient in the study group, by sex and age at the year of discharge. The proportion who died before reaching the rLE was compared between the study population and the control group by calculating risk ratio. Results The study group consisted of 111 former patients and 77 of them (69%) died before reaching the rLE, with mean 4.7 years of life lost (YLL), which was 33% more than that (52%) of the control group (RR 1.33, 95% CI 1.18–1.51). Burn related factors, such as TBSA % or FTB % were not found to account for this effect. Conclusion We found that the long-time survival of elderly patients after burns is shorter than that of a national control, the magnitude of which is quantitatively important. The current study does not support that burn related factors account for this effect and the reason should therefore be sought in other factors, such as e.g., co-morbidity or psychosocial issues.

Introduction Regenerative solutions of the skin represent a hope for burn victims with extensive skin loss and chronic wound patients. The development of xeno-free workflow is crucial for clinical application in compliance with the directives of the European Medicines Agency. This study aimed at evaluating the outcome of the xeno-free isolation workflow of keratinocytes from human skin biopsy. Methods Skin biopsies were obtained from volunteers. The epidermis was digested with TrypLE™ Select, which was deactivated by dilution or with trypsin, deactivated by media with fetal bovine serum. Freshly isolated cells were compared for total cell number, viability, activity of caspase 3, gene expression and the presence of the keratinocyte surface markers cytokeratin 14. The cells were cultured in xeno-free conditions for one week and characterized regarding the number and viability as well as the metalloproteinase secretion. Results The number of obtained cells was similar in both workflows. The cell viability was less in the TrypLE group, with slight reduction of the cell surface marker cytokeratin 14. Caspase 3 activity was comparable as well as the gene expression of the apoptotic markers BAX, BCL2 and SLUG, as well as the keratinocyte markers cytokeratin 14, stratifin and filaggrin. Upon culture, the number of keratinocytes, their viability and secretion of matrix metalloproteinases 1 and 10 were equal in both groups. Conclusion This study reports the possibility of isolating functioning and viable keratinocytes through a xeno-free workflow for clinical application., Highlights • The xenofree workflows are essential for clinical application of regenerative medicine. • TrypLE based digestion of skin biopsies can be deactivated by dilution in a xenofree workflow to isolate keratinocytes. • Although the xenofree workflow was efficient, keratinocytes viability was better with the classical trypsin-based workflow. • The cell characteristics were equivalent upon culturing the cells.

Pirepemat (IRL752) is a cortical enhancer being developed for the prevention of falls in patients with Parkinson disease. This first-in-human, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 1 study evaluated safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) of pirepemat administered as oral single ascending doses (10, 35, 75, 175, 350 mg) and multiple ascending doses (100 and 250 mg 3 times daily) for 7 days to healthy male volunteers. Twenty and 24 subjects were randomly assigned in the single ascending dose and multiple ascending doses parts of the study, respectively. Pirepemat was generally well tolerated, although an increased frequency of adverse events of mild intensity within nervous system disorders (headache and dizziness) was seen after administration of 350 mg as a single dose and after multiple doses of 100 and 250 mg. PK of pirepemat showed a linear relationship over the dose range studied and exhibited dose proportionality after multiple-dose administration. Accumulation after 7 days of multiple dosing was minor. Absorption was rapid, with a median time to maximum concentration of 2.0 hours on day 1 and day 7 (100 and 250 mg) and a mean terminal half-life between 3.7 and 5.2 hours. Food intake had no (obvious) impact on PK. The results support 3-times-daily dosing and further clinical development. Funding Agencies|Integrative Research Laboratories Sweden AB, Gothenburg, Sweden

Previous studies have shown that burn patients were satisfied with the received care. Satisfaction was not strongly associated to burns or to psycho-social characteristics, suggesting that other factors, related to burn care specific aspects, may be important. The aim of this study was to analyze the independent effect of provided workload on the general satisfaction in adult patients at a Swedish national Burn Centre. The study population (n = 122) included patients ≥18 years, treated at the Linköping Burn Centre between 2016 and 2017. Experienced burn care was evaluated with the PS-RESKA survey (score range: 0-4), and provided workload was scored with the Burn Scoring System (BSC). Groups were compared with χ 2 test, MW test, or Fisher´s exact test. Multivariable logistic regression analyzed the independent effect of BSC on the outcome High Satisfaction (= score ≥3 to the survey-question: "How would you score your global experience at the Burn Centre?"). In-patients (n = 60) had more often larger burns and required more workload than out-patients (median[IQR]: TBSA% = 6.3 [3-12.3] % vs. 0.7 [0.3-2] %, p < .001; BSC = 65 [25.5-135.5] vs. 6 [4-9], p < .001). Both groups were highly satisfied with the experienced care (mean score [SD] = 3.68 [0.57] vs. 3.41 [0.77], p = .03). Neither characteristics of the patients (age, sex), nor TBSA% nor provided workload (BSC) were independently associated with High Satisfaction. Regardless of burn severity, demographics and provided workload, adult patients with burns were highly satisfied with the experienced burn care. This finding suggested that the reason of the satisfaction was multifactorial. Funding agencies: Department of Hand Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Burns; Linkoping University, Linkoping, Sweden

The relationship between infrastructure, technology, model of care, and human resources influences patient outcomes and safety, staff productivity and satisfaction, retention of personnel, and treatment and social costs. This concept underpins the need for evidence-based design and has been widely adopted to inform hospital infrastructure planning. The aim of this review is to establish evidence-based, universally applicable key features of a burn unit that support function in a comprehensive patient-centered model of care. A literature search in medical, architectural, and engineering databases was conducted. Burn associations’ guidelines and relevant articles published in English, between 1990 and 2020, were included, and the available evidence is summarized in the review. Few studies have been published on burn unit design in the past 30 years. Most of them focus on the role of design in infection control and prevention and consist primarily of descriptive or observational reports, opportunistic historical cohort studies, and reviews. The evidence available in the literature is not sufficient to create a definitive infrastructure guideline to inform burn unit design, and there are considerable difficulties in creating evidence that will be widely applicable. In the absence of a strong evidence base, consensus guidelines on burn unit infrastructure should be developed, to help healthcare providers, architects, and engineers make informed decisions, when designing new or renovated facilities.

Background This study was performed to develop and validate a cardiac surgical intensive care risk adjustment model for mixed cardiac surgery based on a few preoperative laboratory tests, extracorporeal circulation time, and measurements at arrival to the intensive care unit. Methods This was a retrospective study of admissions to 5 cardiac surgical intensive care units in Sweden that submitted data to the Swedish Intensive Care Registry. Admissions from 2008 to 2014 (n = 21,450) were used for model development, whereas admissions from 2015 to 2016 (n = 6463) were used for validation. Models were built using logistic regression with transformation of raw values or categorization into groups. Results The final model showed good performance, with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.86 (95% confidence interval, 0.83-0.89), a Cox calibration intercept of –0.16 (95% confidence interval, –0.47 to 0.19), and a slope of 1.01 (95% confidence interval, 0.89-1.13) in the validation cohort. Conclusions Eleven variables available on admission to the intensive care unit can be used to predict 30-day mortality after cardiac surgery. The model performance was better than those of general intensive care risk adjustment models used in cardiac surgical intensive care and also avoided the subjective assessment of the cause of admission. The standardized mortality ratio improves over time in Swedish cardiac surgical intensive care.

Delirium is defined as a disturbance of attention and awareness that develops over a short period of time, is a change from the baseline, and typically fluctuates over time. Burn care involves a high prevalence of known risk factors for delirium such as sedation, inflammation, and prolonged stay in hospital. Our aim was to explore the extent of delirium and the impact of factors associated with it for adult patients who have been admitted to hospital with burns.In this retrospective study, all adult patients who had been admitted with burns during a four-year period were studied, including both those who were treated with intensive care and intermediate care only (no intensive care). Daily records of the assessment of delirium using the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale (Nu-DESC) were analysed together with age, sex, the percentage of total body surface area burned, operations, and numbers of wound care procedures under anaesthesia, concentrations of plasma C-reactive protein, and other clinical variables. Logistic regression was used to analyse factors that were associated with delirium and its effect on mortality, and linear regression was used to analyse its effect on the duration of hospital stay.Fifty-one patients (19%) of the total 262 showed signs of delirium (Nu-DESC score of 2 or more) at least once during their stay in hospital. Signs of delirium were recorded in 42/89 patients (47%) who received intensive care, and in 9/173 (5%) who had intermediate care. Independent factors for delirium in the multivariable regression were: age over 74 years; number of operations and wound care procedures under anaesthesia; and the provision of intensive care (area under the curve 0.940, 95% CI 0.899-0.981). Duration of hospital stay, adjusted for age and burn size, was 13.2 (95% CI 7.4-18.9, p0.001) days longer in the group who had delirium. We found no independent effects of delirium on mortality.We found a strong association between delirium and older age, provision ofr intensive care, and number of interventions under anaesthesia. A further 5% of patients who did not receive intensive care also showed signs of delirium, which is a finding that deserves to be thoroughly investigated in the future.

Background The pain of a burn mainly results from the inflammatory cascade that is induced by the injured tissue, and is classified as background, breakthrough, procedural and postoperative pain. High doses of opioids are usually needed to treat background pain, so its management includes a combination of types of analgesia to reduce the side effects. Lidocaine given intravenously has been shown in two small, uncontrolled studies to have an appreciable effect on pain after burns. Objectives In this prospective double-blind controlled trial we aimed to examine and quantify the opioid-sparing effect of a continuous infusion of lidocaine for the treatment of background pain during the early period after a burn. Methods Adult patients injured with burns of >10 total body surface area burned (TBSA%) and treated with a morphine based patient-controlled analgesia device (PCA) were randomised to have either lidocaine infusion starting with a bolus dose (1 mg lidocaine/kg) followed by continuous infusion (180 mg lidocaine/hour) or a placebo infusion, for seven consecutive days. Total daily consumption of opioids (mg) and amount of pain (visual analogue score, VAS) were recorded. Results We included 19 patients, 10 of whom were given a lidocaine infusion. There were no differences between groups in VAS, TBSA%, time of enrolment to the study since the initial burn, or duration of hospital stay. The opioid consumption in the lidocaine group declined by roughly 25% during the period of the study. Conclusion An intravenous infusion of lidocaine was safe and had an opioid-sparing effect when treating background pain in burns.

Background Patient-controlled sedation (PCS) with propofol accompanied by a bedside nurse anaesthetist is an alternative sedation method for endoscopic procedures compared with midazolam administered by a nurse or endoscopist. Increasing costs in health care demands an economic perspective when introducing alternative methods. We applied a hospital perspective on a cost analysis comparing different methods of sedation and the resource use that were expected to affect cost differences related to the sedation. Methods Based on two randomised previous studies, the direct costs were determined for different sedation methods during two advanced endoscopic procedures: endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and flexible bronchoscopy including endobronchial ultrasound. ERCP comparisons were made between midazolam sedation by the endoscopic team, PCS with a bedside nurse anaesthetist and propofol sedation administered by a nurse anaesthetist. Bronchoscopy comparisons were made between midazolam sedation by the endoscopic team and PCS with a bedside nurse anaesthetist, categorised by premedication morphine-scopolamine or glycopyrronium. Results Propofol PCS with a bedside nurse anaesthetist resulted in lower costs per patient for sedation for both ERCP (233 USD) and bronchoscopy (premedication morphine-scopolamine 267 USD, premedication glycopyrronium 269 USD) compared with midazolam (ERCP 425 USD, bronchoscopy 337 USD). Aborted procedures that needed to be repeated and prolonged hospital stays significantly increased the cost for the midazolam groups. Conclusion Propofol PCS with a bedside nurse anaesthetist reduces the direct sedation costs for ERCP and bronchoscopy procedures compared with midazolam sedation.

Objective A history of psychiatric disorders is more common among patients who have had burns than in the general population. To try and find out the scale of the problem we have assessed self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression after a burn. Methods Consecutive patients with burns measuring more than 10% total body surface area or duration of stay in hospital of seven days or more were included. Personal and clinical details about the patients were extracted from the database at each center. Data were collected from the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, as well as Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL; Short Form-36, SF-36) and questionnaires about socioeconomic factors. All results were obtained 12 and 24 months after the burn, and compared with those from a reference group. Results A total of 156 patients responded to the questionnaires. Mean (SD) age and TBSA (%) were 46 (16.4) years and 23.6 (19.2) %, respectively. There were no differences in incidence between the burn and reference groups in anxiety or depression either 12 or 24 months after the burn. Those who reported higher anxiety and depression scores also had consistently poorer HRQoL as assessed by the SF-36. Conclusion Seen as a group, people who have had burns report anxiety and depression the same range as a reference group. Some patients, however, express more anxiety and depression, and concomitantly poorer HRQoL. These patients should be identified, and offered additional support.

Objective: The use of porcine xenograft (PX) is widely spread in burn care. However, it may cause immunologic responses and other ethical and cultural considerations in different cultures. Therefore, there is a need for alternatives. The aim of this work is to test a novel biosynthetic cellulose dressing (Epiprotect®) on burn patients. Approach: Charts from 38 patients with superficial burns (SBs) (n = 18) or excised burns (n = 20) that got biosynthetic cellulose dressing instead of PX at a national burn center during 3 years were reviewed. Time to healing, length of stay, and wound infection were extracted from the medical records. Results: SBs hospitalization time was 11 days comparable to PXs reported by others. In the excised group, median duration of hospital stay was 35 days. Time to healing was 28 days. Seven wound infections were confirmed in the superficial group (39%) and 11 infections in the excised group (61%). Patients with superficial wounds reported pain relief on application. Innovation: A dressing (17 × 21 cm) consisting of biosynthetic cellulose replacing PX. Conclusion: Outcome of treatment of SBs or temporary coverage of excised deep burns with biosynthetic cellulose is comparable to treatment with PX. However, biosynthetic cellulose has benefits such as providing pain relief on application and ethical or cultural issues with the material is nonexistent.

AIM This study described the basic characteristics of children aged 0-16 years who were treated in intensive care units (ICUs) and paediatric ICUs (PICUs), compared their outcomes and examined any causes of death. METHODS This was a retrospective cohort study of admissions to 74 ICUs and three PICUs in Sweden that were recorded in the Swedish Intensive Care Registry from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2012. RESULTS We retrieved data on 12 756 children who were admitted 17 003 times. The case mix differed between the ICUs, which were mainly admissions for injuries, accidents and observation, and PICUs, which were mainly admissions for malformations, genetic abnormalities and respiratory problems (p

The management of Parkinson's disease (PD) is frequently compromised by complications induced by dopaminergic treatment such as involuntary movements (dyskinesias) and psychosis. Mesdopetam (IRL790) is a novel dopamine D3 receptor antagonist developed for the management of complications of therapy in PD. This study evaluated the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of escalating single and multiple doses of mesdopetam. We conducted a prospective, single‐center, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled phase I, and first‐in‐human (FIH) study with mesdopetam administered to healthy male subjects. Overall, mesdopetam was well‐tolerated up to a 120 mg single dose and up to 80 mg upon multiple dosing. Adverse events (AEs) were mainly related to the nervous system and were dose‐dependent. No serious adverse events occurred and no AEs led to withdrawal. The results of the single‐ascending‐dose and multiple‐ascending‐dose parts indicated dose‐ and time‐independent pharmacokinetics with rapid absorption and maximum plasma levels that were generally reached within 2 h after dosing. No accumulation was observed upon multiple dosing. It is concluded that mesdopetam was safe and well‐tolerated in healthy male volunteers. Pharmacokinetic analysis indicated rapid absorption and dose‐linear pharmacokinetics of mesdopetam, with a plasma half‐life of around 7 h, upon single and repeated dosing. The pharmacokinetics of mesdopetam supports twice‐daily use in patients., A first‐in‐human oral dose of mesdopetam for the management of Parkinson's Disease.

Risk adjustment and mortality prediction models are central in optimising care and for benchmarking purposes. In the burn setting, the Baux score and its derivatives have been the mainstay for predictions of mortality from burns. Other well-known measures to predict mortality stem from the ICU setting, where, for example, the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS 3) models have been found to be instrumental. Other attempts to further improve the prediction of outcome have been based on the following variables at admission: Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (aSOFA) score, determinations of aLactate or Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (aNLR). The aim of the present study was to examine if estimated mortality rate (EMR, SAPS 3), aSOFA, aLactate, and aNLR can, either alone or in conjunction with the others, improve the mortality prediction beyond that of the effects of age and percentage total body surface area (TBSA%) burned among patients with severe burns who need critical care. This is a retrospective, explorative, single centre, registry study based on prospectively gathered data. The study included 222 patients with median (25th–75th centiles) age of 55.0 (38.0 to 69.0) years, TBSA% burned was 24.5 (13.0 to 37.2) and crude mortality was 17%. As anticipated highest predicting power was obtained with age and TBSA% with an AUC at 0.906 (95% CI 0.857 to 0.955) as compared with EMR, aSOFA, aLactate and aNLR. The largest effect was seen thereafter by adding aLactate to the model, increasing AUC to 0.938 (0.898 to 0.979) (p aSOFA, and aNLR, separately or in combinations, only marginally improved the prediction power. This study shows that the prediction model with age and TBSA% may be improved by adding aLactate, despite the fact that aLactate levels were only moderately increased. Thereafter, adding EMR, aSOFA or aNLR only marginally affected the mortality prediction.

Burn wounds can create significant damage to human skin, compromising one of the key barriers to infection. The leading cause of death among burn wound patients is infection. Even in the patients that survive, infections can be notoriously difficult to treat and can cause lasting damage, with delayed healing and prolonged hospital stays. Biofilm formation in the burn wound site is a major contributing factor to the failure of burn treatment regimens and mortality as a result of burn wound infection. Bacteria forming a biofilm or a bacterial community encased in a polysaccharide matrix are more resistant to disinfection, the rigors of the host immune system, and critically, more tolerant to antibiotics. Burn wound-associated biofilms are also thought to act as a launchpad for bacteria to establish deeper, systemic infection and ultimately bacteremia and sepsis. In this review, we discuss some of the leading burn wound pathogens and outline how they regulate biofilm formation in the burn wound microenvironment. We also discuss the new and emerging models that are available to study burn wound biofilm formation in vivo. Funding Agencies|British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy [BSAC-2018-0095]; Innovate UK Smart Grant [37800]; FRAME, Young European Research University Network Mobility Award, NC3Rs PhD Studentship [NC/V001582/1]; BBSRC New Investigator AwardUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [BB/V007823/1]; Academy of Medical Sciences/the Wellcome Trust/ the Government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy/the British Heart Foundation/Diabetes UK Springboard Award [SBF006\1040]

Many patients with venous leg ulcers do not reach complete healing with compression treatment alone, which is current standard care. This clinical trial HEAL LL-37 was a phase IIb double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, with the aim to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new drug LL-37 for topical administration, in combination with compression therapy, in 148 patients suffering from hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers. The study had three arms, consisting of two groups treated with LL-37 at concentrations of 0.5 or 1.6 mg/mL, and a placebo cohort. Patients had a mean age of 67.6 years, a median ulcer duration of 20.3 months, and a mean wound size at the time of randomization of 11.6 cm(2). Efficacy analysis performed on the full study population did not identify any significant improvement in healing in patients treated with LL-37 as compared with the placebo. In contrast, a post hoc analysis revealed statistically significant improvement with LL-37 treatment in several interrelated healing parameters in the subgroup of patients with large target wounds (a wound area of at least 10 cm(2) at randomization), which is a known negative prognostic factor for healing. The study drug was well tolerated and safe in both dose strengths. In summary, this clinical trial did not detect any significant differences in healing of venous lower leg ulcers in the entire study cohort comparing patients treated with LL-37 versus placebo. A subgroup analysis provided an interesting observation that LL-37 could offer a treatment benefit in patients with large ulcers, exigently warranting a further study adequately powered to statistically assess the treatment outcome in this patient group. Funding Agencies|Promore Pharma AB

Background Traffic incidents are still a major contributor to hospital admissions and trauma-related mortality. The aim of this nationwide study was to examine risk-adjusted traffic injury mortality to determine whether hospital type was an independent survival factor. Methods Data on all patients admitted to Swedish hospitals with traffic-related injuries, based on International Classification of Diseases codes, between 2001 and 2011 were extracted from the Swedish inpatient and cause of death registries. Using the binary outcome measure of death or survival, data were analysed using logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, comorbidity, severity of injury and hospital type. The severity of injury was established using the International Classification of Diseases Injury Severity Score (ICISS). Results The final study population consisted of 152,693 hospital admissions. Young individuals (0–25 years of age) were overrepresented, accounting for 41% of traffic-related injuries. Men were overrepresented in all age categories. Fatalities at university hospitals had the lowest mean (SD) ICISS 0.68 (0.19). Regional and county hospitals had mean ICISS 0.75 (0.15) and 0.77 (0.15), respectively, for fatal traffic incidents. The crude overall mortality in the study population was 1193, with a mean ICISS 0.72 (0.17). Fatalities at university hospitals had the lowest mean ICISS 0.68 (0.19). Regional and county hospitals had mean ICISS 0.75 (0.15) and 0.77 (0.15), respectively, for fatal traffic incidents. When regional and county hospitals were merged into one group and its risk-adjusted mortality compared with university hospitals, no significant difference was found. A comparison between hospital groups with the most severely injured patients (ICISS ≤0.85) also did not show a significant difference (odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 0.97–1.32). Conclusions This study shows that, in Sweden, the type of hospital does not influence risk adjusted traffic related mortality, where the most severely injured patients are transported to the university hospitals and centralization of treatment is common.

n/a Funding Agencies|Linkoping University; Ostergotland County Council

Data Availability Statement: The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author. Copyright © 2020 Maslova, Shi, Sjöberg, Azevedo, Wareham and McCarthy. The primary reason for skin graft failure and the mortality of burn wound patients, particularly those in burn intensive care centers, is bacterial infection. Several animal models exist to study burn wound pathogens. The most commonly used model is the mouse, which can be used to study virulence determinants and pathogenicity of a wide range of clinically relevant burn wound pathogens. However, animal models of burn wound pathogenicity are governed by strict ethical guidelines and hindered by high levels of animal suffering and the high level of training that is required to achieve consistent reproducible results. In this study, we describe for the first time an invertebrate model of burn trauma and concomitant wound infection. We demonstrate that this model recapitulates many of the hallmarks of burn trauma and wound infection seen in mammalian models and in human patients. We outline how this model can be used to discriminate between high and low pathogenicity strains of two of the most common burn wound colonizers Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, and multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. This model is less ethically challenging than traditional vertebrate burn wound models and has the capacity to enable experiments such as high throughput screening of both anti-infective compounds and genetic mutant libraries. Brunel Research Innovation and Enterprise Fund (2018-11143); British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC-2018-0095); Innovate UK (37800), FRAME; Young European Research University Network; Seed Award in Science (210122/Z/18/Z) granted by the Wellcome Trust.

BackgroundBurn injury is associated with a long-standing inflammatory reaction. The use of albumin solutions for plasma volume support is controversial because of concerns of increased capillary leakage, which could aggravate the commonly seen interstitial oedema.MethodsIn the present open controlled clinical trial, an intravenous infusion of 20% albumin at 3 mL/kg was given over 30 min to 15 burn patients and 15 healthy volunteers. Blood samples and urine were collected for 5 h. Plasma dilution, plasma albumin and colloid osmotic pressure were compared. Mass balance calculations were used to estimate plasma volume expansion and capillary leakage of fluid and albumin.ResultsThe patients were studied between 4 and 14 (median, 7) days after the burn injury, which spread over 7–48% (median, 15%) of the total body surface area. The albumin solution expanded the plasma volume by almost 15%, equivalent to twice the infused volume, in both groups. The urinary excretion exceeded the infused volume by a factor of 2.5. Capillary leakage of albumin occurred at a rate of 3.4 ± 1.5 g/h in burn patients and 3.7 ± 1.6 g/h in the volunteers (P = 0.61), which corresponded to 2.4 ± 1.0% and 2.5 ± 1.2% per hour of the intravascular pool (P = 0.85). The median half-life of the plasma volume expansion was 5.9 (25th–75th percentiles 2.7–11.7) h in the burn patients and 6.9 (3.4–8.5) h in the volunteers (P = 0.56).ConclusionsAlbumin 20% was an effective volume expander in patients at 1 week post-burn. No relevant differences were found between burn patients and healthy volunteers.Trial registrationEudraCT 2016-000996-26on May 31, 2016.

This paper illustrates the efficacy of an artificial intelligence (AI) (a convolutional neural network, based on the U-Net), for the burn-depth assessment using semantic segmentation of polarized high-performance light camera images of burn wounds. The proposed method is evaluated for paediatric scald injuries to differentiate four burn wound depths: superficial partial-thickness (healing in 0–7 days), superficial to intermediate partial-thickness (healing in 8–13 days), intermediate to deep partial-thickness (healing in 14–20 days), deep partial-thickness (healing after 21 days) and full-thickness burns, based on observed healing time. In total 100 burn images were acquired. Seventeen images contained all 4 burn depths and were used to train the network. Leave-one-out cross-validation reports were generated and an accuracy and dice coefficient average of almost 97% was then obtained. After that, the remaining 83 burn-wound images were evaluated using the different network during the cross-validation, achieving an accuracy and dice coefficient, both on average 92%. This technique offers an interesting new automated alternative for clinical decision support to assess and localize burn-depths in 2D digital images. Further training and improvement of the underlying algorithm by e.g., more images, seems feasible and thus promising for the future.

Dupuytren’s contracture is a benign fibroproliferative disease. It develops in about 6% of the older population in Sweden.1 Benign fibromatosis develops in the palmar fascia of the hands and fingers in the form of tough bands in the subdermal level causing flexion contractures, which limit the extension of the affected finger. In 1979, Lermusiaux and Debeyre2 described the use of a needle as a substitute for a blade to disrupt the tough fibrous bands. The method apparently found general acceptance because it is less invasive than open excision, and the function of the hand is usually restored quickly.3–5 Foucher et al3 reported good results, especially for the treatment of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints with a reoperation rate of 24% among the 311 treated fingers. Badois et al6 showed that the recurrence rate was 50% among the 123 hands that were assessed 5 years after treatment. Similar results were reported by van Rijssen et al4 who showed that 50% of the patients remained free of recurrence for a mean of 4.4 years after treatment; however, that study included only 40 fingers. In 2009, collagenase clostridium histolyticum was introduced as an efficient method of treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture, with an overall improvement rate of 64%.7 The use of collagenase increased the total number of patients treated in parallel to a decrease in the number of open fasciectomies.8 Collagenase treatment and needle fasciotomy have some characteristics in common. Both are less invasive than open surgery, so they can be done in the outpatient clinic. In contrast to open surgery, both methods disrupt the cord while leaving the bulk of the pathologic collagen intact.8–11 There have been studies that compared the outcome after the treatment with collagenase or needle fasciotomy, and most of these reports showed no difference in outcome after 1 year’s follow-up.11,12 As both techniques are commonly used at our center with varying results depending on the patient’s age and the surgical technique used, we wanted to compare retrospectively the degree of improvement in the extension deficits of the affected joints, particularly in the MCP and proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints.

Objective To investigate if previous findings on the association between dressing treatments and subjective opinion on final donor site scar outcome using the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS) can be confirmed objectively. The previous study showed that patients dressed with hydrofiber covered with film were more satisfied with their donor site scars than patients receiving porcine xenograft or polyurethane foam dressings. Methods Scar outcome measurements were assessed by a blinded observer using POSAS and the Cutometer dual MPA 580 device to measure the viscoelasticity of skin. Results A total of 17 participants were included in this study, five of whom were treated with hydrofiber, six with polyurethane foam, and another six with porcine xenograft. There were no significant differences among groups in any of the POSAS items or in the viscoelasticity measurements made with the Cutometer. Conclusions The investigators could not confirm previous associations between dressing treatment and long-term donor site scars. No associations between donor sites' healing times and final scarring were found. Hypopigmentation was reported in 15 of 17 donor sites evaluated.

The Baux score - the sum of age and total body surface area burned (TBSA %) - is a good predictor of mortality has a high specificity but low sensitivity. Our aim was to examine the causes of death in patients who die with Baux scores of100, which may explain the lower sensitivity and possibly affect the prediction of mortality.All patients admitted to our centre for burn care from 1993 to 2015 (n=1946) were included in this retrospective, descriptive, exploratory study. The study group comprised those patients who died with Baux scores of100 (n=23), and their medical charts were examined for the cause of death and for coexisting diseases.Crude mortality was 5% (93/1946) for the overall cohort, and a quarter of the patients who died (23/93) had Baux scores of less than 100 (range 64-99). In this latter group, flame burns were the most common (18/23), the median (10th-90th centile) age was 70 (46-86) years and for TBSA 21 (5.0-40.5) %, of which 7 (0-27.0) % of the area was full thickness. The main causes of death in 17 of the 23 were classified as "other than burn", being cerebral disease (n=9), cardiovascular disease (n=6), and respiratory failure (n=2). Among the remaining six (burn-related) deaths, multiple organ failure (predominantly renal failure) was responsible. When we excluded the cases in which the cause of death was not related to the burn, the Baux mortality prediction value improved (receiver operating characteristics area under the curve, AUC) from 0.9733 (95% CI 0.9633-0.9834) to 0.9888 (95% CI 0.9839-0.9936) and the sensitivity estimate increased from 45.2% to 53.9%.Patients with burns who died with a Baux score100 were a quarter of all the patients who died. An important finding is that most of these deaths were caused by reasons other than the burn, usually cerebrovascular disease. This may be the explanation why the sensitivity of the Baux score is low, as factors other than age and TBSA % explain the fatal outcome.

Forearm skin hyperemia during release after brachial occlusion has been proposed for evaluating peripheral arterial disease and endothelial dysfunction. We used a novel fiberoptic system integrating Laser Doppler Flowmetry and Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy for a comprehensive pointwise model based microcirculation characterization. The aim was to evaluate and compare the temporal and the spatiotemporal variabilities in forearm skin microcirculation parameters (speed resolved perfusion; low speed SR, ; mid-speed 1–10 mm/s, high speed > 10 mm/s, and total perfusion (Perf SR, tot ); the concentration and oxygenation of red blood cells, C RBC and S O2 ). Ten healthy subjects underwent arterial and venous forearm occlusions (AO, VO), repeated within one week. The repeatability was calculated as the coefficient of variation (CV) and the agreement as the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). The temporal CVs for conventional perfusion, Perf conv , Perf SR, tot , C RBC and S O2 were 14%, 12%, 9% and 9%, respectively, while the ICC were > 0.75 (excellent). The perfusion measures generally had a higher spatiotemporal than temporal variability, which was not the case for S O2 and C RBC . The corresponding spatiotemporal CVs were 33%, 32%, 18% and 15%, respectively. During VO, C RBC had a CV 0.40 (fair-good), and after release this was the case for C RBC (AO and VO), S O2 (VO) and Perf SR, (VO). In conclusion, the skin microcirculation parameters showed excellent temporal repeatability, while the spatiotemporal repeatability especially for perfusion was poorer. The parameters with acceptable repeatability and fair-good agreement were: C RBC during and after release of VO, the Perf SR, after release of VO, the S O2 and the C RBC after release of AO. However, the value of these parameters in discriminating endothelial function remains to be studied.

As widely reported, the progress in burn care during recent decades has reduced the hospital mortality. The effect of the burns on long-term outcome has not received so much attention, and more study is indicated. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the long-time survival among patients who had been treated for burns.We studied 1487 patients who were discharged alive from the Linköping University Hospital Burn Centre during the period 1993 until the end of December 2012. We used Cox's regression analysis to study the effect of burns on long-term survival after adjustment for different factors.Age and a full-thickness burn were significantly associated with mortality after discharge (p0.001), whereas percentage of total body surface area burned (TBSA %), need for mechanical ventilation, and gender were not. Less than 1% of the patients with burns (13/1487) died within 30 days of discharge and a total of 176/1487 (12%) died during follow-up.Age and full-thickness burns reduce the long-time survival after discharge from the Burn Centre, whereas the effect of TBSA% and need for artificial ventilation ends with discharge.

Background Patients with sepsis may have an increased risk of late mortality, but the causes of late death are unclear. This retrospective matched cohort study aimed to determine the causes of late death (>= 1 year) among patients with sepsis compared to patients without sepsis. Methods 8760 patients with severe sepsis or septic shock (2001 consensus criteria) registered in the Swedish Intensive Care Registry (2008-2013) were compared with a 1:1 matched (gender, age, SAPS3 probability for death, ICU length of stay) control group consisting of non-septic ICU patients. Causes of death (International Classification of Diseases codes) were obtained from the Swedish Cause of Death Register (2008-2014). Results During 2008-2014, 903 patients with sepsis died at >= 365 days after their initial septic event, compared to 884 patients in the control group. Median time of follow-up was 313 days (sepsis group, interquartile range 11-838 days) vs 288 days (control group, 9-836 days). The most common causes of death were heart diseases (sepsis: 50.2%, non-septic: 48.6%) and cancer (sepsis: 33.7%, non-septic: 31.7%). Infectious diseases were significantly more common cause of death in the sepsis group (24.3% vs 19.6%, respectively; P < .05). Pneumonia was a common infectious cause of death in both groups, whereas sepsis was more common in the sepsis group. Conclusions The most common causes of late death after ICU admission among patients with and without sepsis were heart diseases and cancer. However, patients with sepsis more frequently had infectious diseases as a cause of late death, compared to non-septic patients. Funding Agencies|Region Ostergotland

In the last 20 years, large changes in burn care and in the background and logistics around the care for the burn injured have occurred which has implications for how burn care now should be administered and practically performed. Firstly, the incidence of burn injuries has decreased in the Western world and a decrease of about 30% is evident from e.g., since the eighties [1, 2]. In parallel, length of stay in the burn care facilities for the injured has been reduced to about 40% of what it was at that time [3, 4]. Thirdly, the outcome of burns has been significantly improved over the same time period. This may be exemplified by the 50% survival chance that was present for a 45% total burn surface area (TBSA%) burn in a 21-year-old in the late 1970s, which is to be compared to the corresponding 50% survival chance for 80–90% TBSA% burn in the same age patient today [5, 6]. Fourth, patients, with smaller burns, today are to a significant extent treated as outpatients and smaller injuries may have their surgery done as outpatients as well [7–9]. At the same time, an increasing proportion of the patients are in the elderly age groups where the injury poses a larger treat as compared to in younger patients [10, 11]. In this age group, care is to a large extent influenced also by co-morbidities and the possibility to obtain good end results seen especially from the patient perspective [12].

This chapter addresses the treatment algorithms and bundles to be undertaken at the second or last treatment level, the burn center [1, 2]. The burn center provides the last treatment level where also burn surgery is undertaken to cover full-thickness burn wounds. This chapter focuses on the early period of admission at the burn center usually encompassing the first 24–48 h after the burn, whereas the treatment strategies presented in the previous chapter focuses mainly on the triage and patient examination necessary for the acute care and proper prioritization for the next care level. One central aim has then been to do a proper trauma evaluation in line with a trauma triage guideline such as the ATLS and possibly also by a specific burn-based triage algorithm such as the ABLS [3–5] or the EMSB courses [6–8]. It is then important to strictly follow the algorithm so that no specific detail in the patient background or injury profile is over seen—this strategy is then also continued at the receiving site as will be described below. Prior to referral contact is taken between the refereeing physician and the corresponding person at the receiving unit. As was stressed in the previous chapter, there are concerns that there may be details overlooked or the information may be hampered by at times the lack of experience at the referral site. This especially has been a topic of interest as burn care is constantly being further centralized as incidence numbers decline in most high-income western countries and the chance for different physician categories to be exposed to burns decline [9]. To facilitate the communication between referral and receiving units increasing focus has been directed at telemedicine tools that further enhances and facilitates communications [10–12]. Especially photos of injured tissues have been found valuable. Challenges that need special attentions in the early evaluation of the burn injured is related to the need for intubation, estimation of the burn size and depth and correspondingly the magnitude and titration of fluid treatment, and need of escharotomies. A significant portion of the early assessment that will also ensue at the burn center has already been described in detail in the previous chapter and therefore is only shortly mentioned now, and focus is instead directed to important issues to be examined and dealt with at the burn center.

The incidence and prevalence of burn injuries is decreasing worldwide and in parallel there is an increase in outpatient type of care and a shortening in length of stay [1] that has been significant during the last 20 years [2, 3]. This is particularly so for the high income countries [4]. For the low income countries, data is still lacking [4]. This has led to a decreasing demand on health care volume for the care of burns. This has during the last 10 years been a contributing factor for a decrease in the availability of burn care facilities and has boasted the process for centralized care [5–7].

Introduction In line with other researchers in the field of burns’ care, we think that research investigating the long-term outcome of scars is largely lacking. As scarring is of the utmost importance to the patient, clinicians who treat burns must aim to find treatments that lead to a good end result. The aim of this study was to study scar outcomes at six and 12 months after injury. It is an extension of a previous randomised controlled trial (RCT) in which two dressings (porcine xenograft and silver foam dressing) were examined with respect to their ability to help heal partial thickness scalds. Method Children aged six months – six years with acute partial thickness scalds, on the trunk, or extremities, or both, were included. In the previous study, the silver foam was found to have significantly shorter healing times than the xenograft. Children were assessed at six and 12 months after injury for this study, and photographs were taken of the burn site, and both the patient and observer scar assessment scale (POSAS) and the Vancouver scar scale (VSS) were completed and evaluated by blinded observers. Results Of the 58 children from the original RCT, 39 returned to the clinic for evaluation of their scars at six months, and 34 at 12 months after injury. There were no differences in POSAS, VSS total scores, or incidence of hypertrophic scarring between the different dressings. Fifteen children were assessed as having hypertrophic scarring, all of whom had healing times that had extended beyond 14 days. Conclusions This study compared burn scarring after two different treatments for burns in children with partial-thickness scalds and the data suggested that neither dressing had a more favourable impact on scar outcome. The conclusion is, however, tempered by the non-return of all the patients to the follow up. However, as anticipated, regardless of the dressing used, longer healing times were associated with higher scar scores (more scarring) and hypertrophic scarring.

We present in this paper the application of deep convolutional neural networks, which are a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) approach in machine learning, for automated time-independent prediction of burn depth. Colour images of four types of burn depth injured in first few days, including normal skin and background, acquired by a TiVi camera were trained and tested with four pre-trained deep convolutional neural networks: VGG-16, GoogleNet, ResNet-50, and ResNet-101. In the end, the best 10-fold cross-validation results obtained from ResNet- 101 with an average, minimum, and maximum accuracy are 81.66%, 72.06% and 88.06%, respectively; and the average accuracy, sensitivity and specificity for the four different types of burn depth are 90.54%, 74.35% and 94.25%, respectively. The accuracy was compared to the clinical diagnosis obtained after the wound had healed. Hence, application of AI is very promising for prediction of burn depth and therefore can be a useful tool to help in guiding clinical decision and initial treatment of burn wounds. Funding agencies: Analytic Imaging Diagnostic Arena (AIDA)

Aim Our aim was to compare two different regimens for the treatment of children with partial-thickness scalds. These were treated with either a porcine xenograft (EZderm ® , Molnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden) or a silver-foam dressing (Mepilex ® Ag, Molnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden). Methods We organised a prospective randomised clinical trial that included 58 children admitted between May 2015 and May 2018 with partial-thickness scalds to The Burn Centre in Linkoping, Sweden. The primary outcome was time to healing. Secondary outcomes were pain, need for operation, wound infection, duration of hospital stay, changes of dressings, and time taken. Results The patients treated with silver-foam dressing had a significantly shorter healing time. The median time to 97% healing for this group was 9 (7–23) days compared to 15 (9–29) days in the porcine xenograft group (p = 0.004). The median time to complete healing for the silver-foam group was 15 (9–29) days and for the porcine xenograft group 20.5 (11–42) days (p = 0.010). Pain, wound infection, duration of hospital stay, and the proportion of operations were similar between the groups. Number of dressing changes and time for dressing changes were lower in the silver-foam dressing group (p = 0.03 for both variables). Conclusions We compared two different treatments for children with partial-thickness scalds, and the data indicate that wound healing was faster, fewer dressing changes were needed, and dressing times were shorter in the silver-foam group.

Background: Heparin-binding protein (HBP) is released by neutrophils upon activation, and elevated plasma levels are seen in inflammatory states like sepsis, shock, cardiac arrest, and burns. However, little is known about the elimination of HBP. We wanted to study renal clearance of HBP in healthy individuals and in burn patients in intensive care units (ICUs). We also wished to examine the levels of HBP in the effluent of renal replacement circuits in ICU patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT).less thanbr /greater thanMethods: We measured plasma and urine levels of HBP and urine flow rate in 8 healthy individuals and 20 patients in a burn ICU. In 32 patients on CRRT, we measured levels of HBP in plasma and in the effluent of the CRRT circuit.less thanbr /greater thanResults: Renal clearance of HBP (median (IQR) ml/min) was 0.19 (0.08-0.33) in healthy individuals and 0.30 (0.01-1.04) in burn ICU patients. In ICU patients with cystatin C levels exceeding 1.44 mg/l, clearance was 0.45 (0.15-2.81), and in patients with cystatin C below 1.44 mg/l clearance was lower 0.28 (0.14-0.55) (p = 0.04). Starting CRRT did not significantly alter plasma levels of HBP (p = 0.14), and the median HBP level in the effluent on CRRT was 9.1 ng/ml (IQR 7.8-14.4 ng/ml).less thanbr /greater thanConclusion: In healthy individuals and critically ill burn patients, renal clearance of HBP is low. It is increased when renal function is impaired. Starting CRRT in critically ill patients does not alter plasma levels of HBP significantly, but HBP can be found in the effluent. It seems unlikely that impaired kidney function needs to be considered when interpreting concentrations of HBP in previous studies. Starting CRRT does not appear to be an effective way of reducing HBP concentrations.

Background: Chronic pain after burn can have severe physical and psychological effects on former patients years after the initial injury. Although the issue of pain after burn has gained increased attention over the past years, prospective, longitudinal studies are scarce. Our aim was to prospectively investigate consecutive burn patients for pain severity over time and to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of post-burn pain to 2-7 years after the burn. As an additional aim, the effects of burn and individual-related factors, especially health related Quality of Life (HRQoL), were investigated. Method: Sixty-seven consecutive burn patients were assessed during acute care at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months, as well as at 2-7 years post-burn. HRQoL, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychiatric disorders were investigated. During the interviews that took place 2-7 years after the injury (mean 4.6 1.9 years), current chronic post-burn pain was assessed using the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF). Results: One-third of the patients still reported pain 2-7 years after the injury. Pain severity and interference with daily life were mainly mild to moderate though they were found to be associated with significantly lower HRQoL. Chronic pain after bum was associated with both burn- and individual-related factors. In logistic regression analysis HRQoL at 3 and 12 months and symptoms of PTSD at 12 months were independent factors in predicting chronic pain after burn. Conclusion: Pain after burn becomes a chronic burden for many former burn patients and decreases HRQoL. A novel finding in this study was that HRQoL assessed early after burn was a predictor for the development of chronic pain. This finding may help to predict future pain problems and serve as an indicator for pain preventive measures. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council; Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research

Distal half leg complex wounds are usually a formidable problem that necessitates either local or free flap coverage. The aim of this study was to compare cost billing charges in free Gracilis flap (fGF) and local fasciocutaneous perforator flap (lFPF) in reconstructing complex soft tissue leg and foot defects.Thirty consecutive adult (15-year-old) patients with soft tissue defects in the leg and/or foot requiring tissue coverage with a flap in the period between 2012 and 2015 were randomly assigned (block randomization) to either an fGF or lFPF procedure. The outcome measures addressed were total billed charges costs, perioperative billed charges cost, partial or complete flap loss, length of hospital stay, inpatient postsurgical care duration, complications, operating time and number of operative scrub staff.One patient suffered from complete flap loss in each group. Reconstruction with lFPF showed total lower billed charges costs by 62% (2509 USD) (p 0.001) and perioperative billed charges cost by 54% (779 USD) (p 0.001), and shorter total hospital stay (36.5 days; p 0.001), inpatient postsurgical care duration (6.4 days; p 0.001), operating time (4.3 h; p 0.001) and fewer scrub staff (2.2 persons; p 0.001).These results suggest that neither flap is totally superior to the other; the choice should instead be based on the outcome sought and logistics. lFPF requires lower billed charges cost and resource use and saves operative time and personnel and reduces length of hospital stay. Our approach changed towards using perforator flaps in medium-sized defects, keeping the free flap option for larger defects.

Sweden has one of the world’s lowest child injury mortality rates, but injuries are still the leading cause of death among children. Child injury mortality in the country has been declining, but this decline seems to decrease recently. Our objective was therefore to further examine changes in the mortality of children’s death from injury over time and to assess the contribution of various effects on mortality. The underlying hypothesis for this investigation is that the incidence of lethal injuries in children, still is decreasing and that this may be sex specific. We studied all deaths from injury in Sweden under-18-year-olds during the 14 years 1999–2012. We identified those aged under 18 whose underlying cause of death was recorded as International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) diagnosis from V01 to X39 in the Swedish cause of death, where all dead citizens are registered. From the 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2012, 1213 children under the age of 18 died of injuries in Sweden. The incidence declined during this period (r = −0.606, p = 0.02) to 3.3 deaths/100,000 children-years (95 % CI 2.6–4.2). Death from unintentional injury was more common than that after intentional injury (p

Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR) based on generic mortality predicting models is an established quality indicator in critical care. Burn-specific mortality models are preferred for the comparison among patients with burns as their predictive value is better. The aim was to assess whether the sum of age (years) and percentage total body surface area burned (which constitutes the Baux score) is acceptable in comparison to other more complex models, and to find out if data collected from a separate burn centre are sufficient for SMR based quality assessment. The predictive value of nine burn-specific models was tested by comparing values from the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) and a non-inferiority analysis using 1% as the limit (delta). SMR was analysed by comparing data from seven reference sources, including the North American National Burn Repository (NBR), with the observed mortality (years 1993-2012, n=1613, 80 deaths). The AUC values ranged between 0.934 and 0.976. The AUC 0.970 (95% CI 0.96-0.98) for the Baux score was non-inferior to the other models. SMR was 0.52 (95% CI 0.28-0.88) for the most recent five-year period compared with NBR based data. The analysis suggests that SMR based on the Baux score is eligible as an indicator of quality for setting standards of mortality in burn care. More advanced modelling only marginally improves the predictive value. The SMR can detect mortality differences in data from a single centre.

Scalds are the most common type of burn in children, and one way to treat them is with xenografts with no topical antimicrobials in line with the recommendations of a recent review. However, this treatment has not been examined in detail. Our aim was to describe the treatment of such children when biological dressings (xenografts) were used without local antimicrobials. We reviewed the medical records of all children admitted to a Swedish National Burn Centre during the period 2010-2012 with scalds who were treated with xenografts. Percentage TBSA injured, age, length of hospital stay, number of operations, antibiotics given, duration of antibiotic treatment, and pain score during the first 3 days, application of xenografts, and clinical notes of wound infection were recorded. We studied 67 children, (43 of whom were boys), with a median (interquartile range [IQR]) age of 1 (1-2) year and median (IQR) TBSA% 6.2 (4-11). Twenty children (30%) required operation. Twelve (18%) developed a wound infection, 29 (43%) had other infections, and 26 (39%) were free from infection. The median (IQR) duration of systemic antibiotics was 10 (6-13) days. On the day that the xenografts were applied 10 of the children had a Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, and Consolability (FLACC) score between 3 and 7, and during the following 2 days, only four children scored in this range. The remaining 57 children had scores amp;lt;3 on the day that xenografts were applied and on the following 2 days. Median (IQR) length of stay/TBSA% was 0.7 (0.4-1.0). Treatment with xenografts was associated with median length of stay/TBSA% amp;lt; 1 and low pain scores. Despite a high rate of prescription of systemic antibiotics, most were for reasons other than wound infection. Funding Agencies|Department of Hand Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Burns, Linkoping University Hospital, Sweden

Worldwide, ketamine is used during paediatric procedures, but no recommendations are available regarding a suitable dose for rectal administration during procedures involving high levels of pain and/or anxiety such as burn wound dressing change.We evaluated three different single doses of rectally administered racemic ketamine mixed with a fixed dose of 0.5mg/kg of midazolam. In total, 90 children - aged 6 months to 4 years - were randomised 1:1:1 to receive 4mg/kg (K-4 group), 6mg/kg (K-6 group) or 8mg/kg (K-8 group) of racemic ketamine for a maximum of three consecutive procedures. Primary outcome measure was procedural pain evaluated by Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) behavioural scale. Secondary outcome included feasibility and recovery time. Patient safety was evaluated using surrogate outcomes.In total, 201 procedures in 90 children aged 19±8months were completed. The median maximum pain was FLACC 0 in all groups (p=0.141). The feasibility was better for groups K-6 (p=0.049) and K-8 (p=0.027) compared with K-4, and the mean recovery time was the longest for group K-8 (36±22min) compared with groups K-4 (25±15min; p=0.003) and K-6 (27±20min; p=0.025). Median maximum sedation measured by the University of Michigan Sedation Scale (UMSS) was higher in group K-8 compared with group K-4 (p0.0001) and K-6 (p=0.023). One child in group K-8 had a study drug-related serious adverse event - laryngospasm/airway obstruction. No rescue analgosedative medication was administered for group K-6.A rectally administered mixture of racemic ketamine (6mg/kg) and midazolam (0.5mg/kg) during paediatric burn dressing procedures with a duration of approximately 30min provides optimal conditions regarding pain relief, feasibility, recovery time and patient safety, with no need for rescue analgosedative medication.

Background To our knowledge this is the first published estimate of the charges of the care of burns in Sweden. The Linkoping Burn Interventional Score has been used to calculate the charges for each burned patient since 1993. The treatment of burns is versatile, and depends on the depth and extension of the burn. This requires a flexible system to detect the actual differences in the care provided. We aimed to describe the model of burn care that we used to calculate the charges incurred during the acute phase until discharge, so it could be reproduced and applied in other burn centres, which would facilitate a future objective comparison of the expenses in burn care. Methods All patients admitted with burns during the period 2010–15 were included. We analysed clinical and economic data from the daily burn scores during the acute phase of the burn until discharge from the burn centre. Results Total median charge/patient was US$ 28 199 (10th–90th centiles 4668-197 781) for 696 patients admitted. Burns caused by hot objects and electricity resulted in the highest charges/TBSA%, while charges/day were similar for the different causes of injury. Flame burns resulted in the highest mean charges/admission, probably because they had the longest duration of stay. Mean charges/patient increased in a linear fashion among the different age groups. Conclusion Our intervention-based estimate of charges has proved to be a valid tool that is sensitive to the procedures that drive the costs of the care of burns such as large TBSA%, intensive care, and operations. The burn score system could be reproduced easily in other burn centres worldwide and facilitate the comparison regardless of the differences in the currency and the economic circumstances.

Objectives: Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is an emerging technique for the assessment of burns in humans and interobserver differences have not been studied. The aim of this study was to compare assessments of perfusion images by different professional groups regarding (i) perfusion values and (ii) burn depth assessment. Methods: Twelve observers without LSCI experience were included. The observers were evenly recruited from three professional groups: plastic surgeons with experience in assessing burns, nurses with experience in treating burns, and junior doctors with limited experience of burns. Ten cases were included. Each case consisted of one digital photo of the burn with a pre-marked region of interest (ROI) and two unmarked perfusion images of the same area. The first and the second perfusion image was from 24h and 72-96h after injury, respectively. The perfusion values from both perfusion images were used to generate a LSCI recommendation based on the perfusion trend (the derivative between the two perfusion values). As a last step, each observer was asked to estimate the burn depth using their clinical experience and all available information. Intraclass correlation (ICC) was calculated between the different professional groups and among all observers. Results: Perfusion values and perfusion trends between all observers had an ICC of 0.96 (95% CI 0.91-0.99). Burn depth assessment by all observers yielded an ICC of 0.53 (95% CI: 0.31-0.80) and an accuracy of 0.53 (weighted kappa). LSCI recommendations generated by all observers had an ICC of 0.95 (95% CI: 0.90-0.99). Conclusion: Observers can reliably identify the same ROI, which results in observer-independent perfusion measurements, irrespective of burn experience. Extensive burn experience did not further improve burn depth assessment. The LSCI recommendation was more accurate in all professional groups. Introducing LSCI measurements would be likely improve early assessment of burns. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Background: The interpretation of changes in injury-related mortality over time requires an understanding of changes in the incidence of the various types of injury, and adjustment for their severity. Our aim was to investigate changes over time in incidence of hospital admission for injuries caused by falls, traffic incidents, or assaults, and to assess the risk-adjusted short-term mortality for these patients.less thanbr /greater thanMethods: All patients admitted to hospital with injuries caused by falls, traffic incidents, or assaults during the years 2001-11 in Sweden were identified from the nationwide population-based Patient Registry. The trend in mortality over time for each cause of injury was adjusted for age, sex, comorbidity and severity of injury as classified from the International Classification of diseases, version 10 Injury Severity Score (ICISS).less thanbr /greater thanResults: Both the incidence of fall (689 to 636/100000 inhabitants: p = 0.047, coefficient - 4.71) and traffic related injuries (169 to 123/100000 inhabitants: p less than 0.0001, coefficient - 5.37) decreased over time while incidence of assault related injuries remained essentially unchanged during the study period. There was an overall decrease in risk-adjusted 30-day mortality in all three groups (OR 1.00; CI95% 0.99-1.00). Decreases in traffic (OR 0.95; 95% CI 0.93 to 0.97) and assault (OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.87 to 0.99) related injuries was significant whereas falls were not during this 11-year period.less thanbr /greater thanDiscussion: Risk-adjustment is a good way to use big materials to find epidemiological changes. However after adjusting for age, year, sex and risk we find that a possible factor is left in the pre- and/or in-hospital care.less thanbr /greater thanConclusions: The decrease in risk-adjusted mortality may suggest changes over time in pre- and/or in-hospital care. A non-significantdecrease in risk-adjusted mortality was registered for falls, which may indicate that low-energy trauma has not benefited for the increased survivability as much as high-energy trauma, ie traffic- and assault related injuries.