Deep foot burns: Effects of early excision and grafting

Few on the problem of foot burns can be found in the available scientific literature. It is necessary to mention that often deep foot burns occur in Central Asia since many natives still use the ancient means of heating called 'Sandal' during the winter months. Eighty-four patients with severe foot burns were treated in the Burn department of RCSUMA and the Inter-regional Burn Center, Uzbekistan. The patients were subdivided into two groups, depending upon the terms of performing operative intervention. There was no special allocation of patients to groups. Criteria for selection were isolated deep burns of the foot. As for the character of the injury, area of deep burn and the severity of injury, patients of the control and basic groups were not different. The first group included 34 patients on whom early excision was done using skin graft 4-5 days after resuscitation, and the second group consisted of 50 patients who were treated in the traditional way. Methods used on the first group, described in this article, helped to improve the general condition of patients, contributed to the restoration of their foot function, lessened joint deformities and post-burn contracture deformities, shortened their stay in hospital and also reduced expenses. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.