The effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on burn wounds covered with skin allografts

Introduction. Human cadaveric cutaneous allografts are used in burns surgery usually as a temporary dressing preparing wound bed for further surgical procedures. In many cases concurrent application of mentioned grafts and hyperbaric oxygen therapy results in definitive burn wound closure and eliminates the necessity of autologous skin transplantations. Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of allogeneic skin dressing on the burn wounds healing rate and wound bed preparation to the subsequent surgical procedures. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted in two groups consisted of twenty patients each. Patients were treated in Burn Treatment Center in Siemianowice Slaskie due to thermal or electrical burns. On the 3rd day of hospitalization, after wound debridement, in both control and experimental group allogeneic skin transplantation in the operating room was performed. Patients from the experimental group also underwent hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Autologous skin graft was carried out on the 14th day on average among patients in whom epithelialization under allogeneic skin dressing did not succeed. Results. In control group the total epithelialization an complete wound closure under allogeneic skin occurred in 7 patients, while in the remaining 13 patients autologous skin transplantation in operating room was performed due to burn wound deepening. Hospitalization time of each patient was equal to an average of 30.4 day. Among the 14 patients from experimental group complete wound healing under allogeneic graft succeeded and they did not need further surgery, but among the remaining 6 patients split-thickness skin graft was performed in order to definitive closure of the wound. The average hospital stay was 22.5 day. Conclusions. The results of this study confirm that simultaneous application of allogeneic skin dressing and hyperbaric oxygen reduces the length of hospitalization and number of subsequent surgical procedures and frequently results in complete burn wound closure.