title: Noninvasive measurement of edema in partial thickness burn wounds.
abstract: A lack of noninvasive tools to quantify edema has limited our understanding of burn wound edema pathophysiology in a clinical setting. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is a new noninvasive tool able to measure water concentration/edema in tissue. The purpose of this study was to determine whether NIR could detect water concentration changes or edema formation in acute partial-thickness burn injuries. Adult burn patients within 72 hours postinjury, thermal etiology, partial-thickness burn depth, and <20% TBSA were included. Burn wounds were stratified into partial-thickness superficial or deep wounds based on histology and wound healing time. NIR devices were used to quantify edema in a burn and respective control sites. The sample population consisted of superficial (n = 12) and deep (n = 5) partial-thickness burn injuries. The patients did not differ with respect to age (40 +/- 15 years), TBSA (5 +/- 4%), and mean time for edema assessment (2 days). Water content increased 15% in burned tissue compared with the respective control regions. There were no differences in water content at the control sites. At 48 hours, deep partial-thickness injuries showed a 23% increase in water content compared with 18% superficial partial-thickness burns. NIR could detect differences in water content or edema formation in partial-thickness burns and unburned healthy regions. NIR holds promise as a noninvasive, portable clinical tool to quantify water content or edema in burn wounds.
authors.affiliation: Ross Tilley Burn Centre, Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Sunnybrook HSC, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Karen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Leonardi
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: Jeri R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Freisen
authors.forename: Michelle A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Levasseur
authors.forename: Bernie J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Schattka
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Sowa
authors.forename: Joel S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Fish
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002053:Burn Units; D002056:Burns / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004487:Edema / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared