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Team:Groningen/Template/MODULE/PP/martini/scholten
From 2014.igem.org
First visit to the burn centre at the Martini-hospital in Groningen on the seventeenth of July
We had the idea of developing this new type of bandage to fight infections in burn wounds. A bandage that uses genetically engineered bacteria to detect an infection, and maybe even protect the wound from further harm. We got this information from literature, but were keen to see how our solution to this problem relates to the real world. It might look good on paper, but we had no clue on how the end users, the people in the hospital, would look at it. For these reasons, we arranged a meeting with two Doctors from the burn centre Groningen. During this meeting the whole team got a better view of burn wounds in general. It provided us with some idea how big this problem is, and what the current treatment methods are.
Just to give you an idea of what we learned here;
Based on one year, approximately 0.25% of the Dutch population gets a burn wound
35000 of those people are treated by the family doctor
13000 are treated in the hospital
Around 600 – 800 patients are treated in the Dutch burn centres
Among younger children (until 2 years old) hot fluids are the most common cause of burn wounds
Severity of the burn wound is measured in total burned surface area (TBSA) and the depth of the wound
Depending on the severity of the wound, patients can stay from 1 week to several months at the burn centre to fully recover
The burn centre in Groningen has approximately 10 cases of P. aeruginosa colonization per year
30% of the patients at the hospital have an S. aureus colonization
The Gram-negative bacteria are the most difficult to treat
>This is quite a list, and there was a lot more that we learned that day. The most important message in regard of our project is that there is no ideal bandage for the treatment of burn wounds after the Flammacerium treatment. It is a very good incentive to make a bandage that can protect the wound.
Figure 1:
Getting a tour through the hospital.
