Sem And Tem Observations of Rat Trachea and Lung After Inhalation Injury and Cutaneous Burn In a Rat Model

Abstract Inhalation injury is present in 32-38% of patients with severe burns and is associated with an increase of 20-84% above the mortality expected based on age and burn size alone. Most previous studies of smoke inhalation injury have utilized large animals such as the sheep and we have previously reported a TEM and SEM study of lung injury in the sheep. The present observations are part of a study to develop a small animal combined model of smoke inhalation and surface burn. Adult, male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Animals were anesthetized and randomly assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 received a 20% total body area surface (TBSA) full thickness scald burns while groups 3 and 4 were sham treated. Five hours after burn injury, rats were placed in a nose only exposure device and half of each group was exposured to either room air alone or room temperature tree bark smoke for 16.25 minutes.