Combined ionizing radiation and thermal injury in the rat. Evaluation of early excision and closure of the burn wound

The present study was undertaken to establish an animal model of combined whole-body irradiation and thermal injury and to determine the effectiveness of early excision and closure of the burn wound in such a model. Whole-body irradiation over a range of doses resulted in a predictable mortality rate, with an LD50/30 of 783 rad with 95% confidence limits of 737 and 823 rad. A controlled 10% body surface area full-thickness thermal injury resulted in no deaths in 30 animals. When combined with a standard nonlethal 10% thermal injury, varying doses of whole-body irradiation resulted in widely differing LD50/30 values in three separate cohorts of rats. Excision and closure of a 10% burn 24 hours after exposure to 200 rads did not improve survival