Sensibility after burn injury

Thresholds for touch, temperature, pain and two-point discrimination were examined in 27 healthy subjects and in 36 burn patients. Three groups of injuries were examined; superficial dermal burns, which were allowed to heal spontaneously, deep dermal and subdermal burns treated by either early or late excision and skin grafting. Uninjured areas on the contralateral side served as control. In spontaneously healed superficial burns, the sensibility recovered to normal, except for touch. In deep dermal or subdermal burns all thresholds were significantly higher than in the corresponding control areas. There was no recovery beyond one month after the injury. The sensibility was better on the upper than on the lower extremities and also in deep dermal than in subdermal burns. There was no significant difference in sensibility between burns excised and grafted early or late, respectively. The results indicate that current treatment of deep dermal and subdermal burns is not followed by complete recovery of cutaneous sensation. Furthermore, even superficial burns results in incomplete recovery of touch sensibility.