Early Surgical Treatment of Severely Burned Hands

Abstract

Early escharectomy (or tangential excision) followed by immediate grafting is a preferred treatment in the management of deep burns of the hand. This kind of treatment gives not only a better functional result, but may also reduce the amputation rate. However, exposed burned phalangeal bones and joints might often lead to a partial or complete amputation subsequently. The object of our present work is to establish the appropriate measures to preserve the digital length. This chapter presents a report of our recent clinical experiences in the early surgical treatment of severely burned hands. There were nine cases with 14 hands and 66 digits, and fine results were achieved in all.