Burn therapy

Elsewhere in this issue appears a paper by Meeker on management of extensive third-degree burns in 35 children. The paper is an extension of a previous report which describes use of an electric dermatome for preparing and obtaining skin grafts.1 Although early skin grafting (1 to 2 weeks after burn trauma) has been used by many surgeons for a good many years, the débridement and grafting technique entails certain difficulties which may be alleviated by skillful use of the electric (Brown) dermatome as described by Meeker. Early débridement and grafting within 1 to 3 weeks of the burn is a generally accepted surgical technique.