[The surgical treatment of pressure ulcers].

The whole context of the treatment must be taken into account. The aim is to treat the patient and avoid a recurrence. Not all pressure ulcers are suitable for surgery and patients must be rigorously assessed, which requires a coherent approach by all the medical and allied health care teams in order to harmonise practices.

Severe adult burn survivors. What information about skin allografts?

During the acute phase of a severe burn, surgery is an emergency. In this situation, human skin allografts constitute an effective temporary skin substitute. However, information about the use of human tissue can not be given to the patients because most of the allografted patients are unconscious due to their injury.

Dressings for acute and chronic wounds: a systematic review.

Objective: To critically review the literature on the efficacy of modern dressings in healing chronic and acute wounds by secondary intention.

Data Sources: Search of 3 databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Controlled Clinical Trials Register) from January 1990 to June 2006, completed by manual research, for articles in English and in French.

Study Selection: The end points for selecting studies were the rate of complete healing, time to complete healing, rate of change in wound area, and general performance criteria (eg, pain, ease of use, avoidance of wound trauma on dressing removal, ability to absorb and contain exudates).

[Burn scars: rehabilitation and skin care].

Burn rehabilitation main goal is to minimize the consequences of hypertrophic scars and concomitant contractures. The treatment principles rely on the association of joint posture, continuous pressure completed with range of motion to prevent joint fusion (which happens to adults but not to children). Throughout the different treatment phases and wound evolution, reassessment is necessary to review rehabilitation goals and activities.