Burns

The Royal Children’s Hospital’s paediatric burns centre is one of the largest in Australasia, treats children from across Queensland, northern New South Wales, the Northern Territory and the regional Pacific.

The lifelong consequences of burn injury make it one of the most devastating injuries a child can sustain. Scar tissue does not stretch like normal skin and children will sometimes require surgery to accommodate growth. This often means many visits to hospital for surgery and/or therapy to maintain physical function and for scar management. If a child is burnt as an infant, they could face more than 50 operations by adulthood.

The RCH Burns Centre expects to treat more than 650 children in 2009 – a number that is continually rising due to population growth and recognition that it is a centre for excellence in the treatment of burns.

How does the RCH Foundation help?

The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation is working wonders for kids with burns injuries by investing almost $500,000 every year into burns research and prevention.

Our research breakthroughs

The Centre for Children’s Burns Research with funding from the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, has been working tirelessly to unlock the secret to scarless healing, and to identify and educate the general public about burns hazards and the most effective first aid treatments.

The group has identified a special protein which they believe will help skin heal without unsightly, thick scars requiring painful ongoing surgery and treatment. Although well known for over 30 years, the protein Fetuin was not recognised for its specific role in wound healing until the Group discovered high concentrations of Fetuin in foetal skin which healed burn wounds without scars.

The team has now obtained an international patent for Fetuin, and is working towards finding ways to best deliver Fetuin to minimise scarring and allow a less painful and stressful healing process for children with serious burns.

One of the Centre’s eight PHD students recently completed several years of research into the best first aid treatment for burns. The study’s finding that cold running water is the best first aid treatment for burns is now being adopted around the world.

Our hope in 2009-10 and beyond is:

• to continue the progress we’re making through our “scar wars” project to reduce and ultimately one day eliminate the scarring suffered by children with burns injuries
• to continue researching new and existing burns hazards and sharing our findings with the community to prevent burns injuries
• to further refine our research into first aid treatment for burns to determine how this first aid works

Read more about our burns research in our fact sheet.

Read more about burns prevention in our fact sheet.