Deep burn of the hands: Early surgical treatment avoids the need for late revisions?

Abstract

An eight years experience in the management of deep hand burns is presented. We reviewed 116 cases of patients surgically treated with escarectomy and skin autograft. Seventy eight of them underwent early surgery within the first 4-6 days from injury, while 38 were conservatively treated in the fist stage and only lately surgery was performed (usually after the 14th day). In all patients, we applied the same post operative topic treatment and rehabilitation protocol. Several months after first admission, only 6(7.7%) of early treated patients needed secondary correction for unaesthetic and functionally debilitating scars versus 14(36.8%) of the late treated group. Our review confirm the importance of performing early surgery of deep burns of the hands, whenever possible, in order to achieve best results and shows it's utility in reducing re-admissions for secondary revisions.