Optimal Duration of Cooling for an Acute Scald Contact Burn Injury in a Porcine Model

Abstract

The Australian and New Zealand Burn Association recommend 20 minutes of cold running tap water as burn first aid. Scientific evidence for the optimal duration of treatment is limited. Our aim was to establish the optimal duration of cooling using cold running tap water to treat the acute burn. Partial thickness contact scald burns were induced at five sites in each of 17 pigs. Treatments with cold running tap water for 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes were randomly allocated to different sites together with an untreated control site. In the running water 5 and 10 minute treatments intradermal temperatures rose by 1 degrees C per minute when cooling was stopped, compared with 0.5 degrees C per minute for 20 and 30 minutes duration. No differences in the surface area of each burn were noted between the five treatments on day 9. Histological analysis of burn depth on days 1 and 9 revealed that a higher proportion of burns treated for 20 and 30 minutes showed improvement compared with those treated for 5 and 10 minutes only. This difference reached statistical significance (P < .05) only in the cold running water for 20 minutes treatment arm. There was a statistically significant (P < .05) improvement in burn depth in a porcine acute scald burn injury model when the burn was treated with cold running tap water for 20 minutes as opposed to the other treatment durations. This study supports the current burn first aid treatment recommendations for the optimal duration of cooling an acute scald burn.