Application of computational and expert approaches to determining the type of postburn skin scars

Abstract

Difficulties in choosing anti-scarring tactics are one of the topical problems in the management of children with sequels of burn injury. Therapeutic effectiveness can be enhanced, by making a more accurate diagnosis of the type of scar tissue, which allows the determination of an optimal combination of tools and methods for convalescent burn treatment. Despite that there are recent research works dedicated to the practice of unbiased methods, clinical examination is so far the most widespread method for scar assessment, which shows a high percent of medical errors in view of its subjectivity. The authors of this article propose an algorithm of scar type identification via binary regression and expert approach. The data of 109 clinical examinations of scars in 75 children admitted to the G.N. Speransky Children’s Clinical Hospital with burn scar were reviewed. The developed algorithms showed a high efficiency in identifying the type of a scar and were implemented in software that could define the probability of classifying the scar as one of the clinical and morphological types after entering the clinical exam data and scar age. The program is designed for both combustiology professionals and general practitioners