Toxic epidermal necrolysis: a review and report of the successful use of Biobrane for early wound coverage.

Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), is an exfoliative dermatological disorder of unknown cause. A patient with TEN loses epidermis in sheet-like fashion, leaving extensive areas of denuded dermis that must be treated like a large, superficial, partial-thickness burn wound. Methods of coverage described in the English literature over the last decade include the use of several dressings such as fresh-frozen or cryopreserved cadaver allograft, porcine xenograft, and amnionic membrane. Successful use of the biosynthetic dressing, Biobrane, has been described after burn injuries and Stevens-Johnson syndrome; however, its use in TENS has not. We present three patients with TEN treated successfully in our burn center over the past 12 months using Biobrane. The patients were men aged 20, 58, and 77 years, with 58% to 95% total body surface area slough. Diagnosis was confirmed by skin biopsy on admission, and drug ingestion was implicated in each instance. Each patient was thoroughly debrided in the operating room shortly after admission, and denuded areas were covered with Biobrane within 24 to 48 hours of admission. Biobrane demonstrated greater than 90% adherence by 48 hours, and no wound sepsis occurred. Each patient demonstrated epithelialization within 9 days. Patients were ambulatory at 72 hours. Corticosteroids and prophylactic antibiotics were avoided. Enteral nutritional support and aggressive septic surveillance was routine. Hospital stay was between 13 and 30 days without mortality. Early use of Biobrane in patients with TEN appears to provide a reasonable means of wound coverage.