[The use of skin grafting for the treatment of burn wounds in Denmark 1870-1960].

Abstract

Beginning around 1879 the efforts to develop methods for treating burn wounds were fuelled by necessity. Before this time no specifik treatment existed. Following the revolutionary work by the Swiss doctor Jacques-Louis Reverdin in 1869, the first skin graft was performed in Denmark in 1870. Skin grafts were used to treat burn wounds until World War I but due to poor results, the method was abandoned for ointment treatments. Tannic acid was one of the substances used as ointment in this period. During World War II, however, tannic acid treatment was linked to liver damage due to absorption from the wound. At the same time, the many burn injuries of World War II brought about new advances in skin grafting methods, which again became the principle treatment for burn injuries. Up to 1959 patients with burn wounds were treated in dermatological wards at Danish hospitals, but the efforts were then gathered at the surgical ward of the Kommunehospitalet in Copenhagen. In 1961 a burns ward opened at the same hospital, treating all burn injuries from Copenhagen, as well as serious cases from the whole country.