First Aid For Burns: The Use Of Ice Water And Ice?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$209,668.00
Summary
Millions of people worldwide receive burn injuries every year and last year the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane alone treated more than 500 children with new burn injuries. Many of these children with burn injuries will heal burn wounds with unsightly scars and impaired skin function. Cooling burns as first aid has been used since ancient time and is proved to be the most effective way to reduce skin temperature, lessen pain, minimize the depth of injury, and ultimately improve wound heali ....Millions of people worldwide receive burn injuries every year and last year the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane alone treated more than 500 children with new burn injuries. Many of these children with burn injuries will heal burn wounds with unsightly scars and impaired skin function. Cooling burns as first aid has been used since ancient time and is proved to be the most effective way to reduce skin temperature, lessen pain, minimize the depth of injury, and ultimately improve wound healing outcome. However, despite the evidence that cooling burns using ice water <4 C may be beneficial to burns, current first aid recommend to only use cold water 8-25 C and the use of ice-ice water is strongly discouraged for fear of the potential to cause hypothermia and deepen the existing burn injury. In this application we will examine the effect of ice-ice water 2 C on wound healing outcome compared to 15 C water as first aid, in an in vivo model. The wound healing will be clinically assessed by experienced clinicians weekly for six weeks, and then will also be assessed histologically and mechanically at week six. We will also determine the optimal cooling temperature and duration for injured tissue in burn wounds to recover and the conduction of cold through skin. With the coming new knowledge we wish to design an optimal cooling burn treatment which will maximize the beneficial of cooling to the burns but avoid adverse effect of excessive cooling. The success of this project will advance our knowledge on first aid treatment or burn cooling treatment and also wound healing process. It will enable us to offer better first aid treatment which may lead to wound healing with less scars, otherwise can not achieved by other current available treatments. The better healing of burn wounds will significantly improve burn patients' lives, particularly children with burn injuries. It will also release the burden on much needed health funds.Read moreRead less
Management Of Burn Injury: Fluid Dynamics And Antibiotic Pharmacokinetics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$342,375.00
Summary
It is well known that major burns, as well as being relatively common injuries, are notoriously difficult to manage. Patients exhibit significant variability due to a combination of anatomic, physiologic, hormonal and immunologic alterations occurring both at the wound site and, more importantly, in other body compartments and vital organ systems. Skin burn injury results in the release of multiple inflammatory mediators in addition to significant fluid loss. The distribution of inflammatory med ....It is well known that major burns, as well as being relatively common injuries, are notoriously difficult to manage. Patients exhibit significant variability due to a combination of anatomic, physiologic, hormonal and immunologic alterations occurring both at the wound site and, more importantly, in other body compartments and vital organ systems. Skin burn injury results in the release of multiple inflammatory mediators in addition to significant fluid loss. The distribution of inflammatory mediators and wound bacteria to central organs can cause complex physiological changes that may lead to multiple organ failure, with serious infections occurring in around 50% of patients with serious burns. Antibiotic distribution kinetics, such as bioavailability, clearance, volume of distribution, elimination half-life and unbound fraction in plasma can be significantly altered in burn patients. Without detailed knowledge of changes and relationships between factors such as wound pH, tissue oxygenation, protein concentrations of fluid leaked from the local wound microvasculature, tissue binding, oedema and changes in burned and non-burned tissue induced by resuscitation therapies, the optimisation of both local and systemic infection contriol therapies can hardly be expected to advance. This project aims to determine how changes the physiology of burn patients, in particular in the burn wound environment, affect antibiotic penetration and distribution into tissues. We also believe that these changes will vary between patients and are aiming to determine whether certain parameters can be used to give an indication of the best antibiotic dosing regimens for individual patients.Read moreRead less
Implementation Of Negative Pressure For Acute Paediatric Burns
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,410,476.00
Summary
Over 4000 children present to our burns services every year. Contemporary burn care aims to speed up a patients time to healing which directly avoids the child's risk of developing a scar. We know that applying negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) to a child's burn within 72 hours post injury will improve a child's time to healing, decreasing the risk of scarring & cost of care. Co-developing a NPWT Pathway and implementation strategies will improve outcomes for childhood burns nationally.
Harnessing Neural Plasticity To Improve Functional Outcomes Following Burn Injury.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$667,984.00
Summary
Burn is painful and leads to long-term functional impairment and increased chronic disease. Pain and peripheral injury induce changes in the brain that can be functionally beneficial or maladaptive, yet we know little about brain changes following burn injury. This project will identify the mechanisms and functional impact of neural plasticity after burn injury, and test the efficacy of a neural intervention to reduce pain and improve functional recovery following burn injury.
Elastaderm: An Improved Human Skin Substitute For Treating Burns
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$326,316.00
Summary
We will focus on proof of concept needed for the commercialisation of improved dermal replacements designed to repair severe skin burns. These novel dermal replacements are a substantial development of and improvement beyond existing technology because they are intended to reduce wound contraction and increase elasticity.
Targeting Collagen Cross-linking To Improve Scar Appearance
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$873,305.00
Summary
Scarring is a significant problem after injury, and the life-long appearance of scar can be very detrimental to peoples’ wellbeing, both psychological and physical. This work will develop a new drug to improve scar appearance. The drug is likely to be effective even after scar has formed, making it possible to improve scarring in many people. This will improve the quality of life for people after injury.
Improving The Pre-hospital Treatment And Acute Management Of Burned Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$359,942.00
Summary
Children’s burns are physically and psychologically debilitating and are a huge burden for the children themselves, their families and the Australian health care system. My work will determine exactly what conditions are required to cause burns so that we can act to prevent them. I will also develop more effective first aid treatment and new treatments to improve burn wound healing.
The Role Of Androgens In Burn Injury Wound Healing
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$439,480.00
Summary
Burn injury is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Over 10,000 individuals are affected by severe burns each year in Australia. This innovative project aims to provide new fundamental knowledge about the role of androgens (male hormones) in complex burn injury wound healing process, also provide pre-clinical evidence of the ability to systemic and/or local target androgen signaling to improve wound healing for severe burn injury patients.
Improving 3D Scaffolds For Skin Tissue Engineering Using Advanced Biotechnology
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$68,971.00
Summary
Burns injuries are among the most physically and psychologically debilitating injuries. Patients who suffer from severe, extensive burn injuries can have a shortage of healthy, undamaged donor sites and so skin substitutes are used as alternatives to provide wound healing. However, the newly produced skin does not appear or function normally. The aim of this project is to develop a skin equivalent which will provide rapid regeneration of normal skin and improve a patient’s quality of life.