INITIAL RESULTS OF TREATING THERMAL BURNS BY HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY AT THE VIETNAM NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MARITIME MEDICINE

Abstract

Background: Burns, especially heat-related ones, are one of the most common injuries in work and daily life. If patients are not treated properly, burns can leave a lot of sequelae which would negatively affect not only daily activities, working ability but also aesthetics and psychology of the patients. Most topical treatments have been reported that they have some adverse effects and unintentionally prolong the length of hospital stay. Therefore, topical treating method is considered as an inefficient and uneconomical therapeutic approach. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a new treatment. It is able to help to relieve pain quickly, accelerate wound healing process, and reduce length of hospital stay which would effectively improve the burn treatment process. Objectives:To describe the clinical characteristics right at the time thermal burn patients were admitted to hospital and initial results of treating them by hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Materials and methods:Prospective and retrospective case series report. The study sample was the thermal burn patients who came to the Vietnam National Institute of Maritime Medicine for being treated by hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the period between 2018 and 2022. Results:of the 82 total thermal burned patients, the mean age was 48.4±19.5; the main cause of burns was boiled water which accounted for 74.4% of patients; 51.2% of them had been classified as 3rd degree burns; percentage of patients who had under 10% of total body surface area burned was 80.5%; 84.1% of patients had no pain on the 14th day; the mean length of hospital stay was 8.9±3.0 days which was significantly lower than the expected figures. Conclusions: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a new effective treatment for thermal burn patients with a variety of positive impacts on burned tissues. As a result, it should be scaled up, especially in health facilities which is specialized in burn treating.