ABSTRACT
A burn of indeterminate depth is defined as a partial-thickness burn whose preferred management is difficult to select and whose prognosis is difficult to predict. The authors tried to determine the differences in the early morbidity and the late morbidity of early autograft and non-operative conventional therapies for burns of indeterminate depth less than 30% TBSA. The morbidity results were compared between 66 early autograft patients and 75 non-operative conventional therapy patients. In early morbidity, the early autograft group had a shorter average hospitalization, lower hospital cost, less wound contamination and sepsis, and less use of systemic antibiotics, such as cephalosporin and aminoglycoside, but more use of blood products than the non-operative conventional therapy group. The time away from work showed no significant difference when the two groups were compared. When long- term follow up was compared, the non-operative conventional therapy group showed superiority to the early autograft group in cosmetic outcomes, as wound surface character and blister formation. The joint function motion exhibited no difference between the two groups. We conclude that in otherwise healthy patients with dermal burns of indeterminate depth less than 30% TBSA, early autograft is the preferred form of treatment in early morbidity.