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Biomedical subjects

C F Snelling

Publications and source records attributed to C F Snelling.

39 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Tourniquet and subcutaneous epinephrine reduce blood loss during burn excision and immediate autografting.

Blood loss has been reduced using both tourniquets and epinephrine-injected subeschar during burn wound excision. This study quantified and compared blood loss in extremities distal to an inflated tourniquet with that after subeschar infusion of 1:1,000,000 epinephrine in saline into the trunk or proximal extremities. Tangential excision of eschar to viable dermis or fat was followed by immediate application of meshed autograft. Blood loss was calculated by determining the difference of preoperative and postoperative hemoglobin values and the volume of whole blood administered between these. With tourniquets for limbs, 2.07 +/- 0.34% of circulating blood volume per 1% body surface excised was lost; whereas after epinephrine injection 3.42 +/- 0.39% of blood volume per 1% body surface excised was lost (P < 0.05). Both methods effectively reduced blood loss when compared with excision followed by delayed autograft application. Where there was a choice the tourniquet was more effective.

Adolescent↗

Cultured epithelial autografts: three years of clinical experience with eighteen patients.

Eighteen patients with major burns (mean total body surface area burned was 49% and mean total body surface area with full-thickness burns was 38%) had cultured epithelial autografts applied to 2% to 35% of the body surface area. In six patients successful "take" of greater than 65% occurred, and in 12 patients less than 40% "take" occurred. Most wounds underwent early excision to subcutaneous fat or fascia, and the wounds of 16 patients had been treated previously with homograft. Cultured epithelial autografts were covered with either single or multilayered dressings. Perioperative wound cultures showed that all patients had microorganisms, and appropriate perioperative antibiotic coverage of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was noted less frequently in the poor take group, which may have influenced subsequent cultured epithelial allograft take. Adherence and stability of cultured epithelial allografts lag behind adherence and stability of meshed split-thickness autograft. The anterior trunk and thighs are the best recipient sites. The number of autograft harvests that were required to close wounds and the length of hospital stay were not significantly decreased by the use of cultured epithelial allografts as compared with comparable full-thickness burns that were treated previously without cultured epithelial allografts. Presently, grafting with cultured epithelial allografts is an adjunct but not an alternative to conventional burn-wound coverage with split-thickness autograft, because engraftment is inconsistent.

Adolescent↗