Pediatric Hand Burns Requiring Emergency Care in the United States.

Hand and finger burns represent a relatively common occurrence in children, and serious injuries may require surgical intervention to prevent long-term disability. This study examines the epidemiological characteristics of pediatric patients presenting for emergency care of hand and finger burns within the United States. We report a cross-sectional study of patients reported to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2019. Patients were included in our study if they were younger than 18 years old and evaluated for an isolated hand or finger burn. U.S. census data from the same period were used for determining epidemiological estimates of injury incidence. During the 10-year study period, an estimated 300,245 pediatric hand and finger burns were treated in 778,497,380 person-years: an incidence rate of 38.6 burns per 100,000 person-years. Most treated burns occurred in the 1- to 2-year age group (28.3%) with an approximate 50% reduction in incidence for each 1-year age stratum until stabilizing at 6 years. Most burns occurred in white children (58%), but black children had a higher incidence than white children when corrected for the U.S. population (45.15 burns vs 21.45 burns per 100,000 person-years). The most common etiology was a stove or oven (1595/10,420; 15%). Pediatric hand and finger burns occurred most frequently in young children from the oven and/or stove. We urge that parents be assertively counseled about potential burn risks to their young children's hands and fingers, especially once they reach ambulatory age.

Use of Intra-arterial Thrombolytic Therapy for Acute Treatment of Frostbite in 62 Patients with Review of Thrombolytic Therapy in Frostbite.

Amputations are common after severe frostbite injuries, often mediated by postinjury arterial thrombosis. Since 1994, the authors have performed angiography to identify perfusion deficits in severely frostbitten digits and treated these lesions with intraarterial infusion of thrombolytic agents, usually combined with papaverine to reduce vasospasm. A retrospective review was performed of patients admitted to the regional burn center with frostbite injury from 1994 to 2007. Patients with severe frostbite, without contraindications to thrombolytic therapy, underwent diagnostic angiography of the affected extremities. Limbs with perfusion defects received intraarterial thrombolytic therapy according to protocol and the response was documented. Delayed amputation was performed for mummified digits. Angiogram results and amputation rates were tabulated. In this 14-year review, 114 patients were admitted for frostbite injuries. There was a male predominance (84%) and the mean age was 40.4 years. Of this group, 69 patients with severe frostbite underwent angiography; 66 were treated with intraarterial thrombolytic therapy. Four treated were excluded due to incomplete data. In the remaining 62 patients, angiography identified 472 digits with frostbite injury and impaired arterial perfusion. At the termination of thrombolytic infusion, a completion angiogram was performed. Partial or complete amputations were performed on only four of 198 digits (2.0%) with distal vascular blush, and in 71 of 75 digits (94.7%) with no improvement. Amputations occurred in 73 of 199 digits (36.7%) with partially restored flow. Overall complete digit salvage rate was 68.6%. Angiography after severe frostbite is a sensitive method to detect impaired arterial blood flow and permits catheter-directed treatment with thrombolytic agents. Improved perfusion after such treatment decreases late amputations following frostbite injury.

Treatment of hydrofluoric acid burn to the face by carotid artery infusion of calcium gluconate.

Hydrofluoric acid (HF) is highly corrosive substance often used in industrial processes. HF burns to the skin cause local tissue injury. Systemic hypocalcemia may ensue, with the potential to produce life-threatening arrhythmias. Medical treatment consists of local application of topical calcium gels, subcutaneous injection of calcium gluconate, and intravenous or intra-arterial infusion of calcium gluconate. Calcium gluconate infusions have been used for HF burns on distal extremities and digits. We report a case of HF burn to the face that was treated by the use of calcium gluconate infusion via the external carotid artery.

Telemedicine follow-up of burns: lessons learned from the first thousand visits.

Telemedicine is an evolving technology that is used for health education, health care administration, and health care distribution. The potential benefits of telemedicine include a decrease in travel expenses, improved continuity of care, and increased access to specialized consultants, thus meeting the needs of patients, practitioners, and communities. Telemedicine has many evolving applications, including improved access to health care in medically underserved and rural areas. Regions Burn Center assessed the efficacy and efficiency of burn visits via telemedicine and identified the barriers and benefits specific to burn care. Information regarding travel costs and financial data were evaluated from a total of 1000 burn follow-up visits with 294 patients via telemedicine during a 5-year interval. Our results indicate that telemedicine burn visits are a cost-effective clinical alternative for the patient. However, telemedicine can be a financial burden to health care systems and inefficient for health care providers.

Novel surgical approach for axillary hidradenitis suppurativa using a bilayer dermal regeneration template: a retrospective case study.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic debilitating disease of apocrine gland-bearing skin characterized by recurrent abscesses with subsequent rupture, scarring, and draining sinus tracts, most frequently affecting the axillary, inguinal, and anogenital regions. Conservative and temporizing treatment methods have been used to treat mild to moderate disease, but wide local excision of affected tissue is necessary for advanced disease. This creates a large soft tissue defect for which there is no consensus for reconstruction. Recovery is hampered by disease recurrence, tissue necrosis, and reoperation. The authors have described in this case study an alternative surgical approach to treat severe HS. All surgical procedures were performed by dedicated burn surgeons at a regional burn center using a two-stage surgical approach. The first stage is a wide local excision of all affected axillary tissue with immediate placement of a bilayer dermal regeneration template to cover the defect. This is secured with a negative pressure wound therapy dressing. The second stage uses a thin split thickness skin graft to close the wound. Results of four patients are presented. There were no recurrences of HS. Two patients required reoperations to address granulation tissue overgrowth and small areas of autograft loss. One patient experienced skin substitute loss as a result of infection. Inadequate excision of HS is the leading cause of disease recurrence. Using a bilayer dermal regeneration template with subsequent skin graft, surgeons can be aggressive in their excision of HS, achieving satisfactory functional and cosmetic results and minimizing axillary recurrence.

Management of severe rheumatological disease in the burn center.

In recent years, Burn Center has evolved to become a "wound intensive care unit" treating disease processes other than those due to thermal injury. Recent data have shown that more than 16% of admissions to Burn Centers are for nonburn injuries, particularly severe dermatologic diseases. The role of the Burn Center has been expanded to include treatment of patients with severe cutaneous manifestations of rheumatologic diseases. This approach has not been described before. All collagen vascular disease admissions to the Burn Center from 2005 to 2010 have been reviewed. There were 16 admissions where intensive wound management was a major component of the disease management. Disease processes included systemic lupus erythematosus, progressive systemic sclerosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, antiphospholipid syndrome, and dermatomyositis, among others. The authors describe five of these cases in detail. Comanagement of these patients by the Rheumatology and Burn services led to outstanding, successful outcomes. Collagen vascular diseases represent another area where the Burn Center may be the appropriate site for therapy.

Abdominal compartment syndrome from bleeding duodenal diverticulum.

Duodenal diverticuli are acquired false diverticuli of unknown etiology. Although mostly asymptomatic, they can occasionally cause upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage, rarely with massive bleeding. In this report, we present (to the best of our knowledge) the first reported case of duodenal diverticular bleeding, causing abdominal compartment syndrome. Albeit a rare event, duodenal diverticular bleeding should be included in the differential diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. As with our case, a multidisciplinary approach to managing such patients is crucial.

The evolution of resource utilization in regional burn centers.

Regional burn centers provide unique multidisciplinary care that has been associated with dramatically improved outcomes for burn victims. Patients with complex skin and soft tissue injuries are increasingly admitted to these centers for definitive care. This study was designed to assess current trends in burn center resource utilization. Members of the Multicenter Trials Group of American Burn Association were invited to participate in this retrospective review of all patients admitted to their respective regional burn centers during a 10-year period. Collected data included admission diagnosis, demographics, length of stay (LOS), hospital charges, and mortality. Five regional academic burn centers participated. They collectively admitted 18,246 patients during the study period, of whom 15,219 (83.4%) had a primary burn diagnosis and 3027 (16.6%) were patients with nonburn diagnoses. During this period, annual admissions for the five centers increased by 34.7%, ranging from 19 to 83% for individual centers. Simultaneously, mean burn size decreased from 12.3 to 8.8% TBSA. From 1998 to 2006, admissions for nonburn diagnoses increased by 244.9%, whereas burn admissions increased by 31.1%. Although mean LOS was reduced by >25%, total charges for all patients increased by 37.7% after adjustment for inflation. Nonburn patients had significantly higher mean age, longer LOS, greater mortality, and higher daily charges. This review of admissions to five academic burn centers reveals that these centers are treating more patients with smaller burns and an increasing number of complex nonburn conditions. Nonburn patients represent an older and more debilitated population that consumes disproportionately more resources than burn patients. These data show a dramatic shift in burn center resource utilization and the concurrent evolution of regional burn centers into centers for the care of complex wounds.

Livedoid dermatitis and severe necrosis (Nicolau's syndrome) after intramuscular hydroxyzine injection.

Nicolau's syndrome, also called embolica cutis medicamentosa, is characterized by well- circumscribed livedoid dermatitis with aseptic necrosis after intramuscular injection. We report the case of a 45-year-old woman with severe necrosis of the thigh several days after a routine intramuscular injection of hydroxyzine who was transferred to and treated at our Regional Burn Center. Although there has been one case report and numerous voluntarily reported instances of intramuscular hydroxyzine-induced necrosis to the Food and Drug Administration Spontaneous Reporting System, this phenomenon is rare.

Pulmonary embolism associated with a vacuum-induced arm compartment syndrome: a setting for increased vigilance.

Vacuum injuries, otherwise known as negative pressure injuries, are unique mechanisms of traumatic injury. There are few reports of this mechanism in the literature and, although rare, familiarity with the presentation and management is essential to be life and limb saving. In addition, because of the severe inflammatory process, the potential is increased for life-threatening thrombosis and embolism. This is a case of a circumferential vacuum injury to the arm requiring fasciotomy complicated by development of pulmonary embolism. We describe treatment, postoperative management and a review of the relevant literature.