title: Development of a precise experimental burn model.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Porcine wounds closely mimic human wounds and are often used experimentally in burn studies. Multiple burn devices have been reported but they rarely described precise amount of heat transfer and the burn devices generally have low and varying heat capacity resulting in significant and varying temperature drop.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors developed a customized aluminum burn device with cork insulation and high heat capacity. A thermistor probe was embedded in the device to accurately measure the temperature of the aluminum. The burn injury was inflicted by preheating the burn device to 100°C and pressing on the dorsum of pig skin for different time points ranging from 5 to 30s using standardized force of 10N on the device. With the knowledge of the heat capacity of the aluminum block and the temperature drop, the amount of heat transferred can be calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The temperature drop was 0°C, 1°C, 2°C, 3°C and 5°C for a wound-device contact time of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30s, respectively. The depths of injury at 72h after burn were 0.46mm, 0.82mm, 1.21mm, 1.61mm and 1.91mm at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30s respectively. 3.1mm represented a full thickness burn. The depth of the burn wounds significantly correlated with the heat transferred per cm2(correlation coefficient=0.96, p-value=0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors describe a simple, standardized and reproducible animal burn model using a customized burn device. The high heat capacity ensures minimal temperature drop which minimizes the variability of heat transferred with a large temperature drop. The correlation between the heat transfer and the depth of injury can facilitate standardization of burn depths in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115, United States.
authors.forename: Mansher
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115, United States.
authors.forename: Kristo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nuutila
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115, United States.
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Minasian
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115, United States.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kruse
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115, United States. Electronic address: eeriksson@partners.org.
authors.forename: Elof
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eriksson
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum; D000818:Animals; D002056:Burns; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D034421:Sus scrofa; D013552:Swine; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices
chemical_list: D000535:Aluminum
keywords: Burns; Experimental model; Porcine wound