Medical Treatment for Burn Victims: A Path to Recovery
The recent Cras-Montana massacre has left six Italian boys in intensive care, hospitalized at the Niguarda in Milan, with severe burns covering a significant portion of their bodies. The primary concern for medical professionals is to stabilize their conditions and prevent further complications. According to Alessio Caggiati, former head of Idi Irccs plastic surgery and professor at the School of Specialization in Plastic Surgery at the Catholic University of Rome, there are three possible treatment paths for the 14 hospitalized Italians: skin expansion, regenerative surgery, and skin transplant.
Treatment Options for Severe Burns
For patients with severe burns, the treatment options depend on the degree of the burns. While first-degree or second superficial burns can heal easily, deep second-degree and third and fourth-degree burns require more complex treatments. Skin expansion is a necessary intervention to counteract the reduction in mobility of the limbs and fingers resulting from burns. This technique involves inserting silicone balloons under the healthy skin, next to the burned areas, with the extra skin produced being used to replace the damaged one.
Regenerative surgery is another treatment option, which involves collecting stem cells from the patient’s adipose tissue and transplanting them onto the scar tissue to give it elasticity. This technique is becoming increasingly popular due to its favorable relationship between costs and benefits. In more severe cases, the use of sheaths that compress the skin to restore its elasticity can also be useful. The third treatment option is the traditional skin transplant from the patient himself.
Temporary Solutions for Critical Patients
For patients in intensive care, temporary solutions such as artificial or cadaver skin transplants can be used to reduce the burned surface area. This allows medical professionals to stabilize the patient’s condition before considering a skin transplant from the patient himself. As Caggiati explains, “In the case of patients in intensive care, the transplant of artificial or cadaver skin is used to temporarily reduce the burned surface: in the meantime, when the patient is stabilized, the skin transplant from the patient himself can be calmly considered.”
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