CALIFORNIA, USA — Researchers from Queensland, Australia have found that a decades-long burn treatment is worthy of international attention. 20 CRW is the process of putting a burn under cool, running water for at least 20 minutes within the first three hours of the incident.
"After the burn injury has happened there's still a lot of thermal heat trapped under the skin and that's still burning underneath that wound that you see from the outside so what we're trying to do is mediate that depth from progressing down," Lead Researcher Bronwyn Griffin said.
After seeing success within its own country, the research team contacted the UC Davis Burn Institute to get the approach to the United States. That led to a partnership with the emergency department and most recently, with the Sacramento Fire Department.
Department Medical Director Kevin Mackey traveled to Australia to learn more about 20 CRW.
"Their burn center was empty, not a single kid in the burn center. I said 'how is it possible the national burn center doesn't have patients right now?' It's because every citizen in Australia knows this," Mackey said. "The degree of scarring goes way down, the degree of needing skin grafts goes way down, the pain goes down, the hospitalization goes down, everything that we think about a burn that creates not only the immediate effects but the long term effects is mitigated by just a simple act."
Mackey said it's something you do while you're calling for help, the firefighters continue the care once they arrive, and the hospital finishes it. It can stop a burn from progressing to the next degree.
Now there's a partnership among all of these groups to work together to get the word out. They're considering billboards and school visits.
"I'm sure in America it's the same in Australia there's a big bed block situation — critical access to hospital beds is a universal problem at the moment — so if we can decrease hospitalization admissions and burn patients by a third, which is how we're showing in Australia, across America that's going to be a much welcome statistic," Griffin said.
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