Using the inflammatory cell infiltrate to estimate the age of human burn wounds A review and immunohistochemical study
- Publisher:
- Chiltern Publishing
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Tarran Sarah et al. 2006, 'Using the inflammatory cell infiltrate to estimate the age of human burn wounds A review and immunohistochemical study', Chiltern Publishing, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 115-126.
- Issue Date:
- 2006
Closed Access
Filename | Description | Size | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 2006004001.pdf | 1.37 MB |
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Closed Access
This item is closed access and not available.
The burn wound healing process, which is reviewed
in this paper, has features that differ from the
healing of incised cutaneous wounds. This study
used immunohistochemical staining and cell counting
to examine the inflammatory cell response in
biopsy samples of burn wounds from live human
subjects obtained at six hours until 23 days after
injury in order to determine how the age of a burn
could be estimated. Acute inflammatory cells predominated
in samples taken six hours to two days
after injury. However, neutrophils were often minimal
in early samples or could be present late.
Elevated numbers of macrophages tended to be
encountered from days 2 to 20, but it was not
uncommon to observe a minimal or absent macrophage
response. Unexpectedly, there was no trend
in the number of lymphocytes. A small study was
also made of burn wound samples that had been
obtained at post-mortem examination of subjects
that died in a fire or up to 77 days after injury from
fire. This revealed a similar trend of neutrophil and
macrophage accumulation. Additionally,it appeared
that an increase in the number of lymphocytes
occurred late, from 35 days. In conclusion: If
neutrophile predominate, the wound is probably
less than a couple of days old. When macrophages
are abundant the wound is probably a few days to
weeks old. However, as expected from the review of
the literature, the inflammatory cell infiltrate may
be low or absent in burn wounds, which can render
determination of the age of burn wounds difficult.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: