The Firefighters' Burn Treatment Unit treats about 200 patients a year.The majority are children or young men in the productive phase of life. "In young children, we see a lot of scald injuries, liquids spilled from above down over the face and shoulder. We also see many adult males injured on the job-flash fires, petroleum injuries."

The above is a quote from a University of Alberta News article:
"Restoring lives: researchers look for the bestburn treatment"

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Read about the research going on the Firefighter Burn Treatment Unit

Despite numerous burn prevention campaigns sponsored by international, national and local organizations over the last 30 years, burn injury continues to be a considerable health hazard for many people, including children. Unprecedented recovery from burn trauma is now becoming more common as resuscitative and intensive care management of thermally injured patients improves. Despite this major improvement, the quality of survival for many burn patients is compromised by the development of hypertrophic scarring (HSc) which limits function and is cosmetically deforming. During the past several years, we have found that some naturally expressing proteins, known as fibrogenic growth factors, are involved in the development of this devastating disorder. Our research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms by which persistent and overexpression of these fibrogenic factors, such as insulin-like growth factor-1 and transforming growth factor- 1, promote the development of fibroproliferative disorders such as post-burn hypertrophic scarring. Exploring this mechanism will allow us the understanding to attempt to overcome these problems by finding a therapeutic agent(s) to normalize the expression of these fibrogenic factors at the site of injury. The results of our recent experiments demonstrate that interferon alpha has this characteristic feature and therefore can be used to treat post-burn hypertrophic scarring. As this therapeutic agent cannot be used orally or topically, one of our current approaches is to encapsulate interferon into lipid vesicles called liposomes which is penetrable through human skin and thereby delivering this therapeutic agent into the post-burn hypertrophic scarring with minimal discomfort and inconvenience to the patient.

U of A researchers were among the first in the world to graft skin onto new burns. The skin is collected from cadavers (allograft) or healthy areas on a patient's body (autograft). It can be applied immediately or stored in the Comprehensive Tissue Centre, one of the first to be accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks. "Last year we had about 15 to 20 requests for allograft skin from other North American institutions," Tredget says.

The above is a quote from a University of Alberta News article:

"Restoring lives: researchers look for the best burn treatment"