Immediate dressing of the burn wound--will it change its natural history?

Thirty deep dermal burns were inflicted on six domestic pigs. On the treated animals, the epidermis was removed and immediately replaced with Omiderm, Xeroform or Mettalin dressings. Burns in which the blister was left intact or not dressed after epidermis removal, served as controls. Macroscopic and microscopic assessment of the healing process was then carried out. Surprisingly, the no-epidermis controls healed somewhat faster than did the untreated controls (those with blister intact). On day 7, 83 per cent of the treated lesions showed initiation of epidermal regeneration, compared with 58 per cent in the no-treatment and no-epidermis controls. All dressing materials were found equal in this model, and differences between control and treatment groups were not significant after 12 days.