title: The impact of melanocytic cell destruction in pediatric facial burns and plastic surgery therapeutic management.
abstract: The main role of the melanin production belongs to the keratinocyte-Langerhans-melanocyte complex that within a burn injury might be destroyed. A particular aspect has the pediatric patient with burns due to a deficit in pigment synthesis and particularities involving the growth process of facial structures. This article presents four eloquent cases of pediatric patients with sequelae, consequence of facial burns that varied in depth and etiology. The age of patients at time of admission was between four and 18 years, and the interval between production of the primary lesion and admission was variable (0-17 years). Conservative treatments prove to be insufficient, requiring the destroyed structures to be replaced with compatible tissue by surgical intervention. The therapeutic success of skin grafts and dermal substituents acknowledges the main role of plastic surgery. New technologies as well as new cell focused studies support the clinical proven results as well as they enlarge the spectrum of potential available therapeutic methods in order to obtain the best therapeutic results.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, "Sf. Ioan" Emergency Clinical Hospital, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania; liviudraghici@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Anca Roxana
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ungureanu
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ioniţă
authors.forename: Liviu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Drăghici
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Andrei
authors.forename: Dan Mircea
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Enescu
authors.forename: Isabela Magdalena
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Drăghici
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002056:Burns / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005151:Facial Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures; D012535:Scalp / Q000601:surgery; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D013518:Surgery, Plastic; D015625:Tissue Expansion Devices