Initial general management and surgery of six extensively burned children treated with cultured epidermal autografts.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to document the surgical and intensive care methods used in six extensively burned children (EBC), ie, total body surface area (TBSA) burned over 70% or TBSA with deep burns over 60%, treated with cultured epidermal autografts (CEA). METHODS: Six EBC, with a mean age of 7.5 years (range, 2.5 to 12) received CEA. Their mean TBSA burned was 82% (range, 70-94) with 74% (range, 60-90) of TBSA with deep burns. All sustained flame burns and inhalation injuries. RESULTS: The survival rate was six of six. The average initial and final engraftment rates of CEA were, respectively, 79% (range, 70 to 95) and 84% (range, 72 to 100). CEA definitively covered 45% (range, 18 to 57) of TBSA for a mean cost per child of $80,000 (range, 55,000 to 110,000). CONCLUSION: Even if CEA are expensive, such engraftment rates and survival ratio results make them an excellent alternative wound covering method for EBC when donor sites for widely meshed autografts are exhausted.

[Combination of traumatic vascular and neural lesions of the limbs. Surgical approach. Apropos of 10 cases]. / Association de lésions vasculaires et nerveuses traumatiques au niveau des membres. Tactique chirurgicale. A propos de 10 cas.

Ten cases of limb injuries including vascular and nervous lesions are reported. After pointing out the modalities of diagnosis, the authors describe the surgical technic: vascular management first, and then nervous repair. After a six months to three years follow-up, among eight cases, the vascular repair is successful every time, and the nervous repair five times. Although each technic is usually easy, the association of both lesions needs the collaboration of multidisciplinary surgical teams.