title: ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿A Pilot Study of Ultrasonically-assisted Treatment of Residual Burn Wounds ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿.
abstract: ﻿Objective. To evaluate the use of a noninvasive, low-frequency ultrasound device to treat residual burn wounds as an adjunct to regular wound dressing therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nineteen patients with 38 residual wounds (served as self control) with an average post-burn duration of 94.6 days were recruited. Low-frequency ultrasound at 40 kHz was delivered in the ultrasonic group by a handheld probe, using normal saline as the irrigation medium. The control group had dressings changed with saline used as the coupling medium. Each wound was treated for 2 weeks (a total of 7 treatments; once every 2 days). Bacterial colony counts were done before the first and then after the fourth treatment. Serial color photographs were taken to evaluate the wound response at each visit. Healing time and percentage closure were determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Symptomatic relief (pain and odor reduction) was achieved in all patients. The healing percentage for the wounds treated with ultrasound was 100%. The healing rate in the treatment group was 84%, while the healing rate was 71.46% ± 31.06%; both were significantly higher compared to the control wounds (P < 0.01). The bacterial clearance rate in the ultrasound group (82.85 ± 19.13) increased significantly compared to the control group (35.55 ± 16.99). There were no major complications with the treatment, which was relatively painless.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The application of low-frequency ultrasound treatment may heal residual burn wounds when a nonsurgical dressing change protocol has failed. The significant decrease in wound bioburden was definitely related to the use of the ultrasound treatment. No adverse reactions to the ultrasound treatment were found during the study. ﻿﻿﻿.
authors.affiliation: Burn Unit, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China; Email: xiaolucn@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiaolu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shunli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xinan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Gaoxing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Xianhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yuesheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Burn Unit, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China; Email: xiaolucn@163.com.
authors.forename: Yizhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Peng