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Muscle strength in individuals with healed burns
D M St-Pierre1, M Choinière, R Forget
1School of Physical & Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Objective:
To quantify the long-term effects of burns on muscle strength and to investigate the impact of the initial severity of the trauma on muscle strength.
Design:
Cross-sectional study comparing individuals with healed burns to nonburned control individuals matched for age, gender, body mass index, and physical activity level.
Setting:
Subjects were selected from the data bank of a burn center of a large Montreal teaching hospital and tested in a university laboratory.
Patients:
Thirty subjects (mean age, 36.3 +/- 11.5 yrs) with second- and third-degree burns covering 15% to 75% of total body surface area (TBSA) (mean, 35.5% +/- 15.9%) were evaluated more than 1 year after discharge (mean, 37.3 +/- 20.4 months; range, 15 to 92 months). Thirty unburned subjects were recruited from the community at large.
Main Outcome Measure:
Maximal torque, work, and power developed by the elbow and knee flexors and extensors.
Results:
Subjects with burns of > 30% of TBSA produced significantly less torque, work, and power in the quadriceps than control subjects (15.2% to 20.5% depending on velocity [p < .05]). The ability to develop muscle power at the elbow was also compromised in the severely burned subjects (19.2% in extension and 18.7% in flexion [p = .07]) at the faster velocities. No differences were observed between controls and patients with small burn injuries (TBSA of < 30%).
Conclusion:
Patients who had severe burns (TBSA of > 30%) had weaker muscles even years after the trauma, suggesting either an inability to fully recover or insufficient rehabilitation.