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Hot airflow burn injury in a paraplegic patient: report of a case

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Summary

Background

A 24-year-old paraplegic woman suffered deep dermal burns to both hands and circumferential burns to all fingers after a manicure. To accelerate the drying process of the nail polish, the caregiver used a hairdryer. Due to her impaired pain sensation, the patient could not feel the happening skin damage and the inexperienced caregiver did not even consider such a possibility.

Methods

Case report and review of the literature.

Results

After conservative treatment for 3 weeks, we performed skin grafting on the remaining unhealed wound areas with a 100 % take rate and good final results.

Conclusions

The need of a hot air stream during a manicure is questionable. However, in a patient without sensation of pain, its use requires extreme care; otherwise, thermal injuries can easily occur.

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Conflict of interests

Klaus Pfurtscheller, Thomas Petnehazy, Michael Valentin Schintler, and Marija Trop declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Children’s Burns Unit, Medical University Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 34/2, 8036, Graz, Austria

    Klaus Pfurtscheller MD & Marija Trop MD

  2. Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Surgery, Medical University Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 34/2, 8036, Graz, Austria

    Thomas Petnehazy MD

  3. Department of Plastic Surgery, Medical University Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 29, 8036, Graz, Austria

    Michael Valentin Schintler MD

Authors
  1. Klaus Pfurtscheller MD
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  2. Thomas Petnehazy MD
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  3. Michael Valentin Schintler MD
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  4. Marija Trop MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Klaus Pfurtscheller MD.

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Pfurtscheller, K., Petnehazy, T., Schintler, M. et al. Hot airflow burn injury in a paraplegic patient: report of a case. Eur Surg 45, 227–229 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10353-013-0192-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10353-013-0192-1

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