A review on burn and burn models in animals

Abstract

Burns can be defined as tissue damage caused by a variety of agents such as scald, fire, flammable liquids etc, which results in skin damage. Based on the destruction of skin layers, burns are classified as first degree burn, second degree burn, third degree burn and fourth degree burn. The depth of the burn depends on the time and exposure of agent to the skin. The wound healing processes consist of 3 steps, namely, inflammatory phase, proliferative phase and remodelling phase. The first aid treatment involves application of cool or cold water for a definite period of time. There are various topical agents used in the treatment of superficial burns such as silver sulfadiazine, sucralfate, mafenide acetate etc., and many herbal medicines such as Allium cepa, Aloe ferox etc. Pre-clinical study requires the animals to be initially anesthetized using various anesthetic agents or their combinations (e.g. ketamine or combination of ketamine and xylazine or ketamine and diazepam). There are various methods of inducing burns in experimental animals and their parameters for evaluation are wound contraction, reepithelization and histopathological examination.