Tumescent technique for burn wound debridement: a cost effective method of reducing transfusion requirements.

A technique is defined to validate the efficacy of subeschar epinephrine tumescence in reducing blood loss during burn wound debridement. It was done at the Department of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, Harlem Hospital Center, New York City involving two consecutive patients at Burn Intensive Care Unit with full thickness and deep partial thickness burns involving greater than 60% body surface area. Subeschar infusion of 1:10,00,000 solution of epinephrine was achieved prior to tangential debridement. Predicted and actual blood loss was calculated using Desai's formulas. Subeschar epinephrine tumescence prior to debridement produced an average of 39.25% reduction in blood loss.