Authors Year Type of study Patient Burns Type of laser Doppler device Surgery needed Findings Limitation Green et al. [4 ], 1988 Observational Study 10 13 LD flowmetry 6 Statistically significant difference in LD value between healing and nonhealing group Lack of description of methodology of measurement O’Reilly et al. [5 ], 1989 Prospective cohort LD measurements did not influence clinical judgement 41 59 LD flowmetry 8
LD < 1.4 PPV 98.4%, LD > 1.4 deemed superficial and will heal within 21 days 43 > 1.4 LD burned areas excised and grafted Waxman et al. [7 ], 1989 Prospective cohort LDI within 48 h of burn Indeterminate depth only 33 51 LD Flowmetry 18 100% specificity re: healing if flow >6 mL/100 g/min TBSA not specified Niazi et al. [9 ], 1993 Prospective cohortBurns of indeterminate depth Children excluded 13 13 LD imaging 7 Good correlation of LDI with histological assessment No statistical analysis Atiles et al. [8 ], 1995 Prospective cohort 21 86 LD flowmetry 33 <40 PU; Sen: 0.46, Spec: 1.0, PPV: 1.0, NPV: 0.85 No histological assessment. No burn cause identified Park et al. [10 ], Korea
1998 Prospective cohort 44 100 LD flowmetry Not specified Primary outcome; healing at 2 weeks Surgery not specified—just said not healed 2 weeks Banwell et al. [11 ], 1999 Prospective cohort 30 n/a LD flowmetry and LD imaging Not specified Good correlation LDI results and histology No stats Pape et al. [12 ], 2001 Prospective cohort Intermediate depth 48–72 h of presentation 48 76 LD imaging 25 97% PPV of LDI compared with 70% of clinical assessment Kloppenberg et al. [13 ], 2001 Prospective cohort 16 22 LD imaging 6 Sensitivity 100% and specificity 93.8% on day 4 Invalid statistical analysis Holland et al. [14 ], 2002 Prospective cohortPaediatric burns only 12 days cut-off point for healing 57 57 LD imaging 17 Deep dermal; partial thickness Mobility of children Jeng et al. [15 ], 2003 Prospective blinded trialBurns of indeterminate depth 23 41 LD imaging 7 56% agreement between clinician and LDI 8/18 burns deemed superficial by LDI but required grafting Mileski et al. [16 ], 2003 Prospective cohort 56 159 LD flowmetry 53 Sensitivity: 68% Clinical assessment once versus serial LDI
Riordan et al. [17 ], 2003 Prospective blinded trial Surgeon blinded to LDI result 22 35 PIM #II LISCA 24 At threshold value of 1.3 La Hei et al. [18 ], 2006 Prospective blinded trialNo clinical assessment done Assessment by images and LDI only 31 50 LD imaging 22 Sensitivity: 97% Statistical analysis and small number McGill et al. [19 ], 2007 Prospective blinded comparison 20 27 LD imaging 10 LDI: No histological assessment Hoeksema et al. [20 ], 2009 Prospective blinded trialEarly assessment of burns using LDI Intermediate depths Day 0 , 1 , 3 , 5 , 8 , and 21 40 40 LD imaging 12 Sensitivity increases with days after burn. Statistically significantly better than clinical assessment from day 3 2 cases that required surgery and histology showed that burn wound was superficial in nature Cho et al. [21 ], 2009 Prospective cohort studyPaediatric burns Only burns of indeterminate depth 48–72 h 103 181 LD imaging n/a Healing by 14 days at PU of 250 Sensitivity 80.6% and Specificity 76.9% No confirmation of superficial nature of burn with histology Mill et al. [22 ], 2009 Prospective cohort study Paediatric burns Testing different effect of dressings 48 85 LD imaging 6 Scans within 24 h accurately predict outcome No blinding Kim et al. [23 ], 2010 Case-control trial Only patients requiring grafting 16 years 196 196 LD imaging 196 Reduction in decision for surgery in LDI group 8.9 days versus 11.6 days in control group ( No randomisation Merz et al. [24 ], 2010 Retrospective cohort study 28 173 LD flowmetry 88 Sensitivity: 80.6% No histological assessment Nguyen et al. [25 ], 2010 Prospective cohortPaediatric population Two groups; < and >48 h presentation 400 637 LD imaging 89 <48 h No histological assessment in patients operated on Lindahl et al. [26 ],
2013 Prospective cohort 14 45 LD imaging n/a Higher perfusion in burns healing in less than 14 days compared to more than 14 days from day 0 from burn. Small sample of patients Menon et al. [27 ], 2012 Retrospective cohortFriction burns in paediatric population 36 36 Not specified 12 64% accuracy of LDI predicting burn outcome Small sample of patients Pape et al. [28 ], 2012 Prospective cohort 137 433 LD Imaging ns Development of validated colour code for interpretation and link to burn outcome Park et al. [29 ],
2013 Retrospective cohort 96 101 LD imaging 46 Cut-off point of 154.7PU Stewart et al. [30 ], 2012 Prospective blinded control trial 38 105 LD imaging 64 LDI has PPV > 90% accurate in determining need for grafting
