Estimating the usage of allograft in the treatment of major burns.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the amount of allograft used in the past treatment of major burns and calculate a figure to guide estimation of the quantity of allograft required to treat future patients and aid resource planning.


METHODS
A retrospective observational study. Records of 143 patients treated with major burns at a regional centre, from January 2004 to November 2008 were accessed with biometric data and quantity of allograft used being recorded. This data was used to calculate an allograft index (cm² allograft used/burn surface area (cm²)) (AI) for each patient.


RESULTS
112 of the 143 patients had complete sets of data, of the 112, 89 patients survived the initial stay in hospital. For all data average AI=1.077 ± 0.090. AI varied according to burn % area with burns < 40% requiring 0.490 cm² allo/cm²burn, increasing in a logarithmic fashion (R²=0.995) for burn areas > 40%.


CONCLUSIONS
The ability to estimate deceased donor skin requirements based on % body surface area affected is important in the care planning for patients with major burns. Our findings of 0.5 cm² allograft/cm² burn for injuries less than 40% TBSA, increasing to 1.82 cm² allograft/cm² burn for injuries up to 80% TBSA can be used for planning purposes for individual services and for burn disaster planning.
The Burns Service, St. Andrews Centre for Plastic Surgery and Burns, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 7ET, UK.
C W M
CW
Horner
J
J
Atkins
L
L
Simpson
B
B
Philp
O
O
Shelley
P
P
Dziewulski
D000328:Adult; D002056:Burns / Q000601:surgery*; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous / Q000706:statistics & numerical data