Jornal de Citologia e Histologia

Fitted Pressure Garment of Assessment of Scar Thickness on Third-Degree Burns through Ultrasonic Measurement

Abstract

Pi-Wen Huang, Chih-Wei Lu and Hsin-Liang Liu

The aim of this study was to assess the thickness of the scars on the left arm of a female third-degree burn patient through ultrasonic examination in order to investigate the use of 25-mm Hg pressure garments, which are a key treatment for burns. The patient was injured with third-degree burns more than 10 years ago. Sixteen scars were examined. The resulting Pearson correlation of the forearm and upper arm was 0.138 (weak correlation; R²=0.0191). Therefore, in this case, all data points fell on a straight line with a positive (upward) slope. This result indicated different thicknesses for the upper arm and forearm third-degree burn scars; this result displays different thickness for the upper arms and forearm the third degree burn scars; the scars did not spread evenly due to the loading capacity of different parts of body instead of the pressure by pressure garment.
This paper provides accurate information to manufacturers, therapists, and tailors regarding measurements for pressure garments. The results suggest that burn scars should be subject to appropriate pressure on the basis of medium scar height to avoid increasing scars and to stabilise burns, validating the hypothesis that 25 mmHg is not the optimal pressure for female patients with third-degree burns on the left arm and that the optimal pressure should be based on the patient’s burns and wound area. To our knowledge, this is the first study to correlate the thickness of third-degree burns through ultrasound scan.