In June 2011 the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Blood and Blood Products sponsored an international consensus conference on transfusion and trauma. A panel of 10 experts and two external advisors reviewed the current medical literature and information presented at the conference by invited international speakers and attendees. The Consensus Panel addressed six specific questions on the topic of blood transfusion in trauma. The questions focused on: ratio-based blood resuscitation in trauma patients; the impact of survivorship bias in current research conclusions; the value of nonplasma coagulation products; the role of protocols for delivery of urgent transfusion; the merits of traditional laboratory monitoring compared with measures of clot viscoelasticity; and opportunities for future research. Key findings include a lack of evidence to support the use of 1:1:1 blood component ratios as the standard of care, the importance of early use of tranexamic acid, the expected value of an organized response plan, and the recommendation for an integrated approach that includes antifibrinolytics, rapid release of red blood cells, and a foundation ratio of blood components adjusted by results from either traditional coagulation tests or clot viscoelasticity or both. The present report is intended to provide guidance to practitioners, hospitals, and policy-makers.

Bacterial infections are a serious issue in wound healing. Extensive use of biocides in wound dressings have raised concerns of biocide resistance and unnecessary harm to normal skin cells. In this paper, we report a new approach to realize bacteria-triggered release of a biocide to the sites of bacterial infections from core-shell polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-based nanofibers prepared by coaxial electrospinning. The hydrophobic PHA-based shell can prevent the biocide from undesirable payload release in physiological environments without pathogens. However, in the presence of pathogens, the PHA-based shell is degraded by the pathogens, and the encapsulated biocide is released. The released biocide subsequently can exert targeted antimicrobial effects on the bacteria. Using Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model bacterium and dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride as a model biocide, we demonstrated that the core-shell PHA-based nanofibers effectively released encapsulated dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride in the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, resulting in targeted inactivation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells.

Limited research exists examining long-term mental and physical health outcomes in adult survivors of pediatric burns. The authors examine the postin

Social complexity in health outcomes has been attributed to greater risk of injury, adverse health consequences and early death in a variety of populations. To determine what social complexity factors (SCFs) associated with burn injury in children, a systematic review of the literature was performed. Two different databases (PubMed and SCOPUS) were searched for articles related to environmental and social determinants of burn injury. Selected literature examined SCFs to establish the strength of evidence in relation to incidence of burn injury in children. The extent of factors and the most common social complexities were reviewed. The 641 manuscripts found in PubMed and 327 from SCOPUS were initially reviewed for duplication and English language. Subsequently, manuscripts were selected for relevance based on titles followed by abstracts. Forty-seven manuscripts were reviewed in their entirety. The literature supports a relationship between an increased incidence of paediatric burns in lower income families, children with behavioral disorders, fewer years of parental education and children residing in a rural setting. The majority of reports came from Europe followed by Australia, and scattered information from other countries. SCFs in the environment of the child are associated with an increased risk of burn injury in children. The literature supports the influence of lower income, lower parental education, behavioral disorders and living rurally with an increased incidence of injury. By identifying children at increased risk, it is possible to develop targeted burn prevention and education programs to mitigate burn injury.

The scratch assay is an in vitro assay that allows for high-throughput quantification of wound closure by keratinocytes and fibroblasts with relative ease. However, this assay is amenable to experimental variables, which can result in false-positive and false-negative data, making the interpretation of such data difficult. Also, data variability decreases the sensitivity of the scratch assay. Here, we identify important sources of data variation in the scratch assay and provide rational mitigation strategies that enable robust and highly reproducible quantification of scratch width and area, and ultimately the scratch closure rates. By eliminating these sources of variability, the sensitivity of the scratch assay is enhanced, thereby allowing for identification of dependent variables with wide-ranging impacts on wound closure in a robust and standardized manner.