A 37-year-old male was admitted with 7% TBSA burn to bilateral upper extremities following a motor vehicle accident. His wounds were evaluated for 7 days and the patient was sent home after it was determined that no surgical treatment was indicated. The perfusion and photographic images are shown in Figure 3.
Similar to Case 2, this patient showed a spike in perfusion of both areas on day 3, which then returned to a level similar to previous values on day 4. The absolute difference between areas 1 and 2 was of a smaller magnitude compared to the previous cases, and on day 2 the values were similar enough to be indistinguishable.
Neither of the latter two patients required subsequent skin grafting, suggesting that the correct surgical decision had been made based on clinical grounds alone. In all cases the areas determined to be deeper by visual assessment were shown to have reduced perfusion by quantitative assessment; however as indicated above, the magnitude of difference and absolute values both varied substantially between patients and both areas eventually healed.