Abstract
There are very few porcine burn models that replicate scald injuries similar to those encountered by children. We have developed a robust porcine burn model capable of creating reproducible scald burns for a wide range of burn conditions. The study was conducted with juvenile Large White pigs, creating replicates of burn combinations; 50°C for 1, 2, 5 and 10 minutes and 60°C, 70°C, 80°C and 90°C for 5 seconds. Visual wound examination, biopsies and Laser Doppler Imaging were performed at 1, 24 hours and at 3 and 7 days post-burn. A consistent water temperature was maintained within the scald device for long durations (49.8 ± 0.1°C when set at 50°C). The macroscopic and histologic appearance was consistent between replicates of burn conditions. For 50°C water, 10 minute duration burns showed significantly deeper tissue injury than all shorter durations at 24 hours post-burn (p ≤ 0.0001), with damage seen to increase until day 3 post-burn. For 5 second duration burns, by day 7 post-burn the 80°C and 90°C scalds had damage detected significantly deeper in the tissue than the 70°C scalds (p ≤ 0.001). A reliable and safe model of porcine scald burn injury has been successfully developed. The novel apparatus with continually refreshed water improves consistency of scald creation for long exposure times. This model allows the pathophysiology of scald burn wound creation and progression to be examined.
Highlights
Burns are a common and potentially devastating cause of injury in childhood
Scald burns as a mechanism of thermal injury are of particular importance as globally they are still the most commonly treated paediatric burn injury [1]
One of the major advantages of a scald burn model is that the hot water is able to uniformly cover the entire area of exposed skin despite any irregularities in the skin surface
Summary
Scald burns as a mechanism of thermal injury are of particular importance as globally they are still the most commonly treated paediatric burn injury [1]. Many experimental animal models of burn injury are reported in the literature (reviewed in [5, 6]) using rats, mice, rabbits, guinea-pigs and pigs with various mechanisms of thermal injury such as scald, contact, radiant heat and flame. Given the anatomical and physiological similarities between porcine and human skin [7,8,9,10], pigs are considered by many to be the optimal species for cutaneous thermal injury investigations [6, 8, 9, 11].
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