Burns are an unexpected disaster that kill or deform many people every year. The object of burn treatment is to replace the destroyed skin and to restore normal function. There are 3 methods of skin replacement; xenograft, allograft and autograft.
We treated 28 bum patients from Feb. 1, 1977 to July 31, 1977 with amniotic membranes applied to the burned -area as one method of allograft. Of these 28 patients, 20 were admitted and 8 were treated in the outpatient department. There were 12 males and 16 females, and 17 were under 5-years of age. 24 patients were scalding burns and 4 were flame burns. 25 patients were 2° and 3 were 2° to 3° burns. 20 patients had bums of less than 15%, 7 were 15% to 30% and 1 was 30% to 4095.
Using aseptic technique, amniotic membrane was obtained from placenta by easily peeling it from the chorion. The membrane was cleansed with sterile isotonic saline solution and 0.025% sodium hypochlorite solution for sterilization prior to being stored at 4°C.
All membranes cultured microbiologically at weekly intervals revealed negative bacterial growth. The membranes studied histologically at weekly intervals revealed no cellular change or necrosis for 10 weeks, but degenerative change appeared after this period. Of these 28 patients, 13 were grafted with amniotic membranes that had been prepared and preserved for 2 weeks, 9 were grafted with membranes preserved 3 to 4 weeks, 5 were grafted with membranes preserved 5 to 7 weeks, and one was grafted with membrane preserved for 10 weeks.
3 to 6 months follow up after total healing revealed 21 patients were healed without scarring, 2 patients who had 2° to 3° burns had some flat scarring and 1 patient who had an autogenously mesh skin graft for scattered 3° burns had hypertrophic scarring. 4 patients were impossible to follow up.
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