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Background: Severe burns are associated with dramatic outcomes which are potentially detrimental. Nowadays the standard treatment for deep partial thickness and full-thickness burn is early excision and grafting, which is not always feasible this leads to chronicity and microbial colonization of burn wounds. Interesting properties of hydrogen peroxide 2% soaked gauze convinced us to use it in management of chronic burn wounds. Methods: From January 2009 to September 2011, in a prospective clinical trial, 49 patients (98 limbs) with chronic-colonized burn wounds in both limbs were included in this study. Tissue cultures were taken from all the wounds. For the right, after debridement of granulation tissue and washing with hydrogen peroxide 2% soaked gauze for 5 min followed by normal saline irrigation, grafting was done; debridement and skin grafting was performed in the conventional method in left limb wounds. The success rate of graft take was compared between two groups, after 21 days by the surgeon using the formula:. Grafttake surface area (cm²) x 100%/ Total grafted area (cm²) Results: The study group was composed of 98 limbs in 49 patients with mean age of 26.44 ± S.66 and burn in 28.3 ± 7.23% TBSA. The most common causes of the burn wounds chronicity was delayed admission associated with poor compliance. (44.8%) Staphylococcus was the most frequent isolate bacterial wounds colonization in our patients. (59.2%) Mean graft take was 82.85% in right limbs, and 65.61% in left limbs; which was significantly different (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Our study showed that, administration of hydrogen peroxide intraoperatively appears to be safe and significantly increases the mean success rate graft take in chronic- colonized wounds. Therefore, it can be recommended in management of chronic burn wounds management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is rapidly increasing worldwide. Occupation-related stress such as military parachuting has been considered to be a potentially important cardiovascular risk factor. The present study was performed to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and metabolic syndrome among military parachutists which provides a guideline to prevent catastrophic cardiovascular events. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study among 96 military parachutists in southern IR Iran; who were evaluated in the military clinic in Shiraz, Southern IR Iran. Information regarding demographic and life style were obtained from each subject. Arterial blood pressure, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC), fasting blood glucose, lipid profile consisting of total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglyceride were measured by standard methods. Results: The mean age of participants was 37.4±6.4 years. There were 5 (5.2%) cases under treatment for cardiovascular diseases, 4 (4.2%) participants were pre-diabetics and 5 (5.2%) suffered from diabetes mellitus. Hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia were seen in 23 (24%) and 46 (47%) military parachutists respectively. Conclusions: Although war-related stressors and high intensity physical activities are associated with both acute cardiac events and cardiac risk factors, our data is in favor of lower frequency of cardiovascular risk factors among military parachutists. However, routine monitoring of military parachutists is necessary to find the cardiovascular risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our recent literature survey indicated a lack of clinical assessment of the influence of gender and site of burn injury on the outcome of patients with extensive burns. This report examines the effect of burn sites and gender on extensive burns' mortality. Data was gathered from 283 patients with burns larger than 65% of the total body surface area (TBSA) above the belt line or below the belt line; and without underlying diseases and inhalation burn injury. Patients were classified according to gender, site of injury (upper and lower body parts) and hospital stay period. Mortality rates of each category were then compared with each other. The hospital stay period in the female group was significantly higher compared with the male group (P<0.001) and the mortality rate among the female patients was higher compared with the male patients (P=0.004). Although the mortality rate in lower body part of the male group was significantly higher in comparison with the upper body part burn (P=0.001), there was no difference in mortality rate of upper versus lower body part in the female group. The mortality rate was generally higher among the female patients. Additionally, higher mortality rate was observed among male patients with lower body part burn compared with injuries of male patients with upper body part burn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]