Extracorporeal shockwave therapy for the treatment of deep dermal burns of the hand: A preliminary study

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy is used to treat chronic wounds; however, the effect on acute burn wounds of the hand has not been elucidated. We aimed to determine the healing effect of extracorporeal shockwave therapy on the wounds of patients with deep dermal hand burns, and preliminarily explore the mechanism thereof. We recruited 40 patients with deep dermal hand burns who were randomly divided into a routine dressing treatment group (n = 20) and an extracorporeal shockwave therapy group (n = 20). The wounds of the extracorporeal shockwave group were treated on days 3, 5, and 7 after injury. Percentage of wound healing, blood perfusion, infection, pain scores, and Vancouver Scar Scale of scars from 6 months after patient discharge were recorded and compared between the groups. Our method enabled us to find that the percentage of wound healing in the extracorporeal shockwave group was significantly better than that in the routine dressing treatment group. The immediate blood perfusion of wounds in the extracorporeal shockwave group after extracorporeal shockwave therapy increased significantly, and with the increase of time and treatment frequency, the wounds in the extracorporeal shockwave group reached peak blood perfusion earlier than that in the routine dressing treatment group. In conclusion, extracorporeal shockwave therapy can effectively shorten the healing time of deep dermal burns of the hand. The mechanism of action may be related to the immediate and long-term effects of increasing blood perfusion in burn wounds, while effectively reducing wound pain and controlling the spread of inflammation in the acute phase.