Early burn excision and immediate grafting: A method reduced mortality

Early excision and skin grafting (EEG) is a well-established and accepted procedure for deep burn management. The efficacy of early excision and grafting in deep burn wounds has been published worldwide. But reports from the orient on these techniques are few. Therefore we performed early burn excision at Zuo-Ying Military Hospital for deep burn wound from 1993 to 1997 as a protocol. Group A was historical control and patients were treated using conventional treatment with dressing changes and spontaneous separation of burn eschar before grafting. In the study group, Group B, the patients were treated with early burn excision and grafting which was performed between day 3 to day 7 post-burn. We found that: early surgical intervention did not shorten hospital stay. However, early surgical intervention reduced mortality, which was statistically significant in patients with burn area of 61% to 80% TBSA. (P value < 0.05) The outcome of severe burn, in early debridement and grafting patients, was superior in comparison with those treated with the conventional method.