Quantifying the efficacy of first aid treatments for burn injuries using mathematical modelling and in vivo porcine experiments

First aid treatment of burns reduces scarring and improves healing. We quantify the efficacy of first aid treatments using a mathematical model to describe data from a series of in vivo porcine experiments. We study burn injuries that are subject to various first aid treatments. The treatments vary in the temperature and duration. Calibrating the mathematical model to the experimental data provides estimates of the thermal diffusivity, the rate at which thermal energy is lost to the blood, and the heat transfer coefficient controlling the loss of thermal energy at the interface of the fat and muscle. A limitation of working with in vivo experiments is the difficulty of measuring variations in temperature across the tissue layers. This limitation motivates us to use a simple, single layer mathematical model. Using the solution of the calibrated mathematical model we visualise the temperature distribution across the thickness of the tissue. With this information we propose a novel measure of the potential for tissue damage. This measure quantifies two important factors: (i) the volume of tissue that rises above the threshold temperature associated with the accumulation of tissue damage; and (ii) the duration of time that the tissue remains above this threshold temperature.