Burn injuries can be associated with the incidence of disability and death, yet their management remains a costly difficult problem. We conducted this clinical trial to evaluate the period of wound healing with sea buckthorn dressings for the seconddegree burns and compare the results with 1% silver sulfadiazine (SSD) dressings. This randomized triple-blind clinical trial was conducted in a hospital in Isfahan, Iran.Fifty-five patients suffering second-degree burns were recruited through convenient sampling and randomly divided into two groups and treated with either sea buckthorn cream or 1% SSD. Wound dressings were done until complete wound healing was attained. The process of healing burns was monitored using the Bates-Jensen Wound Assessment Tool; complete healing was determined by using the standard burn healing checklist. It was deduced that the period of healing second-degree burns in the group treated with sea buckthorn cream was shorter than the group treated with 1% SSD (p < 0.001). The results demonstrated the greater clinical efficacy of sea buckthorn cream over 1% SSD for healing second-degree burns. It was concluded that using sea buckthorn dressing by reducing the period of wound healing can shorten the course of treatment of second-degree burns as well as reduce the burden of care in health care services.

Background:Acute coronary syndrome is one of the major cardiovascular diseases that leads to a significant amount of morbidity. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of cardiac rehabilitation on quality of life in patients with acute coronary syndrome.Materials and Methods:This was a clinical trial study conducted on 50 patients with acute coronary syndrome admitted to the coronary care units of Shohada Hospital in Isfahan in 2013-2014. The participants were randomly assigned to control (n = 25) and study (n = 25) groups. The study group received cardiac rehabilitation in phase 1 and 2. Phase 1 was conducted in a hospital in Isfahan province that had no cardiac rehabilitation center but had minimal cardiac rehabilitation equipments. Phase 2 was conducted at home by follow-up through telephone and referring the patients to the hospital. The control group received usual cardiac rehabilitation. The data were collected via a demographic questionnaire and SF-36 quality of life questionnre before and 1 month after intervention by the researcher. Data were analyzed by independent samples t-test.Results:In the study group, the mean scores in all domains of quality of life increased significantly after intervention (P < 0.05). In the control group, the mean scores of quality of life were not significantly different before and after intervention (P < 0.05). A significant difference was found between the study and control groups in all domains of quality of life except for general health and social function (P < 0.05) in favor of the study group.Conclusions:The results of this study showed that cardiac rehabilitation program could lead to improving the quality of life in the patients with acute coronary syndrome.