A faster, less painful method for treatment of massive burns, one of the most difficult types of injuries suffered particularly by tank and artillery troops in Israel’s wars, has been developed by a Weizmann Institute professor, Israel Schechter.
Dr. Schechter is a medical officer in the army reserve and thus has had first hand contact with the severe physical and psychological effects of the trauma of deep burns. His techniques is a new method of skin grafts, the Institute reported.
The existing procedure involves a skin dressing designed to provide deep burn victims with a protection against infection and loss of body fluids. But the dressing must be changed every few days during the critical three weeks after the injury.
Dr. Schechter’s technique involves preprocessing the skin grafts with glutaraldehyds, a chemical which significantly changes the chemistry of skin constituents. This processed skin covering can be retained for lengthy periods and need not be replaced as often as unprocessed skin.
When the burnt area is sufficiently healed, the treated graft is removed and replaced with a permanent graft from the patient’s own skin, eliminating the need for frequent and painful skin grafting operations. The new technique has been tested and is now getting additional evaluation.
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