Sprayed cultured autologous keratinocytes in the treatment of severe burns: a retrospective matched cohort study

Abstract Objective: Cultured autologous keratinocytes were used to treat burns since 1981 with many challenges and variable clinical outcome. Our aim was to compare the duration of hospital stay between burned patients received skin grafts with and without cultured autologous keratinocytes, in a retrospective cohort study. Multivariable regression was used to analyse associations between duration of hospital stay and treatment adjusted for age, mortality, size, and depth of the burn. Then, we investigated the differentiation of human stem cell line to keratinocyte-like cells as a future perspective. Results : The median hospital stay in the group given cultured autologous keratinocytes (n=12) was 70 days (10 th – 90 th centile 50-141) and in the matched group 62 days (2 -196) (n=43), p=0.25. The multivariable regression analysis showed a coefficient of 17.36 (95 % CI -17.69 to 52.40), p= 0.32, for hospital stay in the treatment group, compared with the matched group. Our results showed no difference in the duration of hospital stay between the two groups. Therefore, further evaluation for this treatment is needed. Stem cells showed enhanced proliferation and differentiation when cultured on glass surface rather than the classical tissue culture plastic and should be considered for burn management research.