TREATING WAR BURNS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23714, 12 August 1942, Page 2

TREATING WAR BURNS

♦ NEW METHODS USED IN BRITAIN WORK OF CHRISTCHURCH SURGEON The development of mechanised warfare has been responsible for far more casualties from burns in this war than in the last; but new methods of treatment now used in Britain have reduced the mortality rate by 75 per cent and cut down the disfigurement rate. Badly burned soldiers and airmen who might have died or been disfigured for life in the last war now have every chance of returning to military or civil life without scars or disfigurement. . The nature of this work, which is mainly directed by the famous New Zealand plastic surgeon, Sir Harold Gillies, was described yesterday by Major J. J. Brownlee, plastic surgeon to the New Zealand armed forces, who has returned to Christchurch after four months’ service in the Middle East. Before going to Egypt. Major Brownlee spent a year in Britain as a member of one of the surgical teams organised by Sir Harold Gillies to look after all cases of severe burns among servicemen and civilians. All except 5 per cent, of the cases dealt with were due to war injuries received either in action or during air raids. Mechanisation and Burns

Major Brownlee said that mechanised warfare with its tremendous use of petrol-driven vehicles had greatly increased the percentage of burns cases. After the Battle of France there were an enormous number of burns cases, principally among tank and Bren gun carrier crews. Airmen were burnt usually by a blow back from the

engine, .which caused “flash” burns. These were very momentary but tremendously severe, and because of the hign temperature might cripple a man’s hands permanently. If pilots wore gloves they were not burnt, and since the instructions regarding the wearing of gauntlets had been strictly enforced, the number of .burns cases had gone down enormously. The modern treatment of bad burns, according to Major Brownlee, aims at reducing shock and keeping the patient alive in the first two or three days, as 80 per cent, of burns cases die at that stage. After that the treatment aims at getting the burnt area surgically clean as quickly as possible. Plentiful use is made of sulphanilimide powder, and the burns are covered with greasy dressings, which can be floated off in saline baths without hurting the patient. When the burnt area is clean, it is resurfaced as quickly as possibly by means of skin grafts from other parts of the body before any injury is caused. Residual deformities are entirely taken out when everything has healed up. Reconstructive Surgery

Major Brownlee, said that the treatment of burns and the reconstructive surgery which followed took a long tjme—when he left Britain in January men • who had fought at Dunkirk and in the Battle of Britain were still in hospital—but the results were amazing. For instance a fighter pilot who had his' face, eyelids, and both legs severely burned, and both hands fused together, was up and about at the end of a year. The morale of the men under treatment was magnificent and one reason for this was that Royal Air Forces patients were all together in one ward no matter how severe their injuries. When a patient saw another man either worse or as bad,as himself he did not become so depressed. Also patients were encouraged to go on leave and engage in social activities at places near the burns treatment centres.

The surgical teams dealing with burns cases are internatiohal in character, and associated with Major Brownlee in his work were two New Zealand surgeons, Messrs A. H. Mclndoe and A. R. Mowlam, both graduates of the University Ox Otago, and American, Canadian, Australian and Spanish surgeons. Three New Zealand dentists headed by Major G. Gilbert helped in the dental work involved in reconstructive surgery.

Major Brownlee did similar work while in the Middle East, but he had fewer burns cases to deal with as the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force was not fully mechanised.