Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2020; 8(20): 5062-5069
Published online Oct 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i20.5062
Effective administration of cranial drilling therapy in the treatment of fourth degree temporal, facial and upper limb burns at high altitude: A case report
Cong-Mo Shen, Yi Li, Zhou Liu, Yong-Zhang Qi
Cong-Mo Shen, Yi Li, Yong-Zhang Qi, Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xi’ning 810016, Qinghai Province, China
Zhou Liu, Department of Cardiology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wu’xi 214000, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Shen CM, Liu Z and Qi YZ were the patient’s attending physicians, who reviewed the literature, contributed to manuscript drafting, and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; Li Y designed and guided surgical procedures; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: The patient was informed of the treatment procedures and agreed to these procedures.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yong-Zhang Qi, MD, Doctor, Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, No. 29 Tongren Road, Xi’ning 810016, Qinghai Province, China. scm1506536989@163.com
Received: May 10, 2020
Peer-review started: May 10, 2020
First decision: June 7, 2020
Revised: June 16, 2020
Accepted: September 2, 2020
Article in press: September 2, 2020
Published online: October 26, 2020
Processing time: 168 Days and 22 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: We report the case of a female patient who suffered a fourth degree burn in the left temporal part of her face. This followed an episode of syncope which led to her collapse onto a fire basin. Skull periosteum and facial deep fascia were exposed resulting in complications with wound repair. As head and facial burn wounds were not suitable for early escharectomy, she was treated with systemic nutritional support, local wound exposure, debridement and skin grafting at a later stage. The patient was given a skin graft from the thigh, but some of the skin slices were observed to have survived poorly, resulting in further skull exposure. The skull was drilled to induce granulation, and the wound was closed with a local flap transfer. Due to the patient living in Xi’ning City which has an altitude as high as 2260 m above sea level, hyperbaric oxygen therapy was given repeatedly from initial admission until the local flap transfer operation to cover the exposed skull wounds. This was beneficial to the patient’s recovery and survival of the skin flap.