This pilot study was designed to verify if sprayed coolant can improve initial cooling management in extensive burns. The cooling effects of one liter sprayed water and five liters poured water (22°C) were tested. Thus n=53 healthy test persons (28 male, 25 female, 20-30 years) were cooled twice (15 minutes long) at the front of their legs (18% TBSA). Thermographic imaging was used to measure the loss of skin temperature and to assess the homogeneity of cooling. The mean decrease of skin

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... ture was significant higher (p<0.003, paired t test) with spray cooling throughout the entire cooling period. "Root mean square" (rms) of temperature fluctuations was calculated to assess the homogeneity of cooling. A low rms level stands for a more even distribution of coolant. Spray-cooling led to significant lower values for rms the first nine minutes (p<0.003, paired t test). Infrared tympanic thermometry was used to estimate core body temperature. Neither poured nor sprayed water cooling caused hypothermia in this study with healthy test persons. Even with a fifth of the coolant volume, spray cooling provides a stronger and more evenly distributed local cooling. The usage of sprayed coolant affords an improvement of initial cooling management.