Topical Negative Pressure on Burns: An Innovative Method for Wound Exudate Collection

Burn wound exudate is an important source of information on the wound-healing process and systemic improvement of burn patients. Identification of biomarkers for the prediagnosis of local or systemic complications in patients will have a great impact on adapting personalized procedures in burn treatment. No efficient exudate collection method exists that offers a direct and continuous collection over time. We developed an innovative system based on the negative pressure wound therapy technique to directly collect exudate from burn wounds over several days after burn. This method did not cause any complication or pain for patients, and positive influence on wound healing was seen. Exudate samples were further used in different projects for studying biochemical profile, trace element content, kinetics of bacterial growth, and cell cytotoxicity.