Objective: To quantify the long-term effects of burns on muscle strength and to investigate the impact of the initial severity of the trauma on muscle strength.
Design: Cross-sectional study comparing individuals with healed burns to nonburned control individuals matched for age, gender, body mass index, and physical activity level.
Setting: Subjects were selected from the data bank of a burn center of a large Montreal teaching hospital and tested in a university laboratory.
Patients: Thirty subjects (mean age, 36.3 +/- 11.5 yrs) with second- and third-degree burns covering 15% to 75% of total body surface area (TBSA) (mean, 35.5% +/- 15.9%) were evaluated more than 1 year after discharge (mean, 37.3 +/- 20.4 months; range, 15 to 92 months). Thirty unburned subjects were recruited from the community at large.
Main outcome measure: Maximal torque, work, and power developed by the elbow and knee flexors and extensors.
Results: Subjects with burns of > 30% of TBSA produced significantly less torque, work, and power in the quadriceps than control subjects (15.2% to 20.5% depending on velocity [p < .05]). The ability to develop muscle power at the elbow was also compromised in the severely burned subjects (19.2% in extension and 18.7% in flexion [p = .07]) at the faster velocities. No differences were observed between controls and patients with small burn injuries (TBSA of < 30%).
Conclusion: Patients who had severe burns (TBSA of > 30%) had weaker muscles even years after the trauma, suggesting either an inability to fully recover or insufficient rehabilitation.