Progression of Wound pH During the Course of Healing in Burns

The aim of this study was to measure the pH on the wound surface of 30 burn patients and test the hypothesis that wound surface pH is correlated to healing time and burn depth. Inclusion criteria were any adult outpatient with burn injury. Patient age was 17 to 75 years (mean, 44), burn depth ranged from superficial to full thickness with a TBSA of 0.4 to 4%. Cause of burn included scalds, flame burn, and contact burns. On admission, and at each dressing change, the pH on the wound surface was measured. The pH in both healing and nonhealing wounds was found to decrease with each dressing change. At the second dressing change, wounds that went on to heal were found to have a significantly lower pH of 7.32 in comparison with pH 7.73 in wounds that failed to heal and therefore required subsequent grafting (P = .004). Wound pH was also correlated to depth at the second dressing change (superficial = pH 6.05, full thickness = pH 8.0). The correlation between pH and wound outcome could be used as an additional diagnostic tool to predict poor healing in wounds. Early identification of a nonhealing wound may allow a more aggressive treatment regimen, including skin grafting, to bring about rapid wound healing.