TY - JOUR PY - 2019// TI - A comparison study of methods for estimation of a burn surface area: Lund and Browder, e-burn and Mersey Burns JO - Burns: journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries A1 - Chong, Hsu Phie A1 - Quinn, Linda A1 - Jeeves, Amy A1 - Cooksey, Rebecca A1 - Lodge, Michelle A1 - Carney, Bernard A1 - Molony, Darren SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - INTRODUCTION: One of the greatest challenges in burn care is the estimation of a total burn surface area (TBSA). It is especially challenging and needs to take into account the growing proportions and the age of a paediatric patient. The aims of this study is to: (1) assess the reliability of the three modalities (LB, MB, and EB) in calculating the extent of burn injuries and fluid resuscitation, and (2) compare the features in terms of usability and efficacy.

METHODS: Participants were recruited from Women's and Children's Hospital (WCH), South Australia's surgical and emergency department. Participants were introduced to LB, MB and EB, and then commenced calculation of TBSA on two simulated paediatric (patient A: 12 months, patient B: 4 years) burns. The participants were categorized into three groups; (1) Burns-naïve, (2) Burns-experienced, and (3) Burns-expert.

RESULTS: A total of 45 participants took part in this validation study: doctors (49%), nurses (33%), nursing students (11%) and medical students (7%). The burns-naïve group demonstrated higher means in both patients and has greater variance, TBSA mean 28.8%, range 14-40.5% and mean 37.4%, range 20-52.3% in patient A and B respectively. Two-way ANOVA analysis shows a statistically significant interaction between the effects of level of experience and use of applications on estimation of TBSA in larger burns.

CONCLUSION: Innovative software and mobile applications demonstrate a high potential as clinical adjuncts in achieving better health outcomes in any health care system. Both Mersey Burns and e-burn reduced the risk of human error particularly from untrained or non-specialised clinicians, however, e-burn proved to be more favourable in our study. Technology-aided models are the future of burns assessment, and further studies are warranted to determine their impact on overall clinical outcome.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0305-4179 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2019.08.014 ID - ref1 ER -