Suprathel Use During Prolonged Field Care to Promote Healing and Reduce the Need for Grafting of Burn Wounds
Abstract
The overall goal of this study is to examine how the synthetic wound dressing Suprathel can reduce the need for skin grafting as compared to standard dressings in partial-thickness burns. The need for grafting will be determined after three weeks. Furthermore, other outcomes such as pain reduction, infection rate, scar development, patient satisfaction, and costs will be compared to that of standard dressings. The FY20 MBRP CTRA Focus Area to be addressed will be burn care solutions for use by the medical first responder in the pre-hospital setting. Based on existing literature, we expect that use of Suprathel will improve outcomes of Service Members undergoing burn injury treatment in a prolonged field care (PFC) setting. Suprathel has been shown to reduce the need for future skin grafting. It is an easily portable treatment, which is convenient for use in PFC. Suprathel is easy to apply, which makes it realistic for use by personnel without formal medical training. It has also been shown to improve pain control in patients. A study outcome showing reduced need for skin graft placement in patients dressed with Suprathel would imply that application of such a dressing to our wounded warriors during PFC would be a treatment superior to that which is currently available. This project has significant impact on the clinical care and treatment of burned Service Members in prolonged field care. Results from this study will improve our treatment of patients with partial-thickness burns in a situation when medical evacuation is not possible and health resources severely limited. Burns are common combat injuries, and it is expected that in future conflicts, this will remain unchanged or worsen. Current standard of care therapies fail to address the concept of burn care in the new combat environment. Use of the synthetic wound dressing Suprathel has potential in not only this regard, but also in lessening hypertrophic scars, lowering infection rates, reducing workload, and decreasing pain. Our burned Service Members will benefit directly from this concept in burn wound management both in near-term and in long-term outcomes. The future battlefields are expected to be far different from previous ones like those encountered in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom. As the Department of Defense pivots from these counterinsurgency readiness of the past two decades to preparedness for future near peer/peer adversary conflict, the necessity for reconsideration of our approach to battlespace burn care has taken on heightened significance. The specter of potential conflict with world powers possessing emerging weapons such as non-nuclear strategic weapons (e.g., thermobaric weapons), directed energy weapons, such as laser and microwave weapons, and precision fires requires development of novel, disruptive technologies to allow for care of our combat burn injuries. Moreover, with the likelihood that future conflicts will be fought in dense urban environments, which are prone to reflect blast and promote thermal and electrical injury, burns will be far more common in numbers and severity in the future than in past conflicts, requiring technologies for medics that provide superior outcomes but with simplified logistics. Suprathel s characteristics make it so that it can be feasibly used as a first-line dressing in future operational settings when evacuation may be delayed, high number of injured casualties expected, to treat and temporize burns while minimizing untoward effects.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 05, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2110557
Entities
People
- Rodney K Chan
Organizations
- United States Army
- United States Army Institute of Surgical Research