A multi-center study on the regenerative effects of erythropoietin in burn and scalding injuries: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Although it was initially assumed that erythropoietin (EPO) was a hormone that only affected erythropoiesis, it has now been proposed that EPO plays an additional key role in the regulation of acute and chronic tissue damage.

Methods/design: This is a large, prospective, randomized, double-blind, multi-center study, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and fully approved by the designated ethics committee. The trial, which is to investigate the effects of EPO in severely burned patients, is in its recruitment phase and is being carried out in 13 German burn care centers.

Single-stage Matriderm® and skin grafting as an alternative reconstruction in high-voltage injuries.

This article presents a retrospective analysis of a series of nine patients requiring reconstruction of exposed bone, tendons or joint capsules as a result of acute high-voltage injuries in a single burn centre. As an alternative to free tissue transfer, the dermal substitute Matriderm(®) was used in a one-stage procedure in combination with split-thickness skin grafts (STSG) for reconstruction. Nine patients, in the period between 2005 and 2009 with extensive high-voltage injuries to one or more extremities which required coverage of exposed functional structures as bone, tendons or joint capsule, were included.