THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD MATRIX TO THE WOUND HEALING PROCESS IN PARTIAL – THICKNESS BURNS

Abstract

Burns are one of the most serious injuries, affecting around 11 million people a year worldwide. About 200/100000 inhabitants in Lithuania. Treatment is com­plex: the priorities of specialized facilities focus on sta­bilizing the patient, preventing infection, and optimizing functional recovery; and requires a lot of resources, both human and financial. Therefore, more and more effective treatments for burns are constantly being sought in order to accelerate the healing itself and thus reduce the du­ration of hospitalization. Number of recent reports sug­gests that EMF has a positive impact at different stages of healing. Processes impacted by EMF include, but are not limited to, cell migration and proliferation, expres­sion of growth factors, nitric oxide signaling, cytokine modulation, and more. Objectives and methods. The objective of this work was to study the effect of electromagnetic matrix on wound healing in burns. We evaluated medical records of 18 patients who underwent treatment in the department of plastic and reconstructive surgery from 2018.01.01 to 2019.12.30. All patients had IIA-IIB degree burns affec­ting less than 10% of the body surface and underwent the standard general treatment. They were divided into two groups: control group 55,6% (n=10) – treated only with the standard treatment and research group 44,4% (n=8) – to whom the EMF matrix were applied. Statistical data analysis was carried out using the SPSS 23.0 software. Results. Pain assessment, wound granulation area, and epithelialization were chosen to evaluate the burn healing process. These indicators were assessed on day 0-1; 3(±1) days and 7(±1) days after hospitalization. There was a statistically significant increase in wound granulation 5 days after the start of treatment in patients treated with the applicator (p = 0.019). Pain and epithelialization ra­tes between standard and applicator treatment methods did not differ statistically significantly over the treatment period. The partial nonparametric Spearman correlation coefficient, eliminating potentially influencing factors such as time after injury, the area of burn showed that the treatment method had a direct effect on the area of wound granulation (r = 0.625; p = 0.04). Conclusion. During the period from 2018.01.01 to 2019.12.31 patients had IIA-IIB degree burns affecting less than 10% of the body surface. 55,6 % of patients were treated only with the standard treatment and 44,4% with EMF matrix. The analysis showed that the average hospitalization time of the control group was 8.5 (0.898) days, while in the research group it was 7.88 (1.493) days, no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant increase in wound granulation 5 days after the start of treatment in patients treated with the applicator (p = 0.019). Pain and epitheli­alization rates between standard and applicator treatment methods did not differ statistically significantly over the treatment period.