Differentiation between viable and necrotic tissues, day and night showering, a buffer to counteract acidosis—these subjects dealing with the management of burns were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, May 13 to 16 in Chicago.
A means of determining the extent of bums in laboratory animals by the use of a protein dye was presented by Dicran Goulian, Jr., MD, DDS, of New York City Hospital and Herbert Conway, MD, of Cornell University Medical College.
The dye—bromphenol blue—was shown experimentally to be effective in differentiating between normal, injured and dead tissues resulting from various types of bums, Goulian said. Application has been made to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to use the dye in clinical tests.
Bromphenol blue, Goulian explained, forms a very loose attachment to protein. When injected into the bloodstream it diffuses rapidly turning the entire body blue. If injected