NOT (uterus or cardio* or neoplasm or cancer or metastas$ or malignancy) The various objective measures that relate to scar severity can be divided into the following categories:

Standardised, quantifiable, reliable (reproducible) and valid assessment tools that provide a more objective evaluation of scars are essential for monitoring the changes in scar quality over time and also to determine the effectiveness of scar treatments. The physical characteristics of scars further add to the complexity of rating as changes in both the vascularity and pigmentation can occur simultaneously, and scars are also rarely homogenous in both colour and texture, which makes estimation of mean values difficult and inaccurate for a human observer. The POSAS attempts to improve the method of rating scars by including the patients’ perspective however, patients’ perception and subjective evaluation of their scars have been shown to be influenced by depressive symptoms. However, these scar scales are considered to be subjective and the resulting scores can vary between different assessors (inter-assessor variation), different scar severities and age of the scar, and some studies have suggested that more than one rater (sometimes as many as five), and utilising the average, is required in order to produce reliable ratings. Several such scar scales have been developed and are used widely, including the commonly used Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) and the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS). These scales in general are free or low cost and require minimal training to utilise. In order to assess and track the evolution of scars over time, subjective rating scales have been introduced into clinical practice.

Non-fatal burns however is a leading cause of morbidity, as many of these patients develop hypertrophic scars that may lead to significant disfigurement and disability (e.g. In the last few decades, major advances in burn care have greatly improved survival rates and an increased number of patients are surviving large burns. Burn injury is one of the most common type of traumatic injuries in the world with an estimated incidence of 1.1 per 100,000 population and remains one of the leading causes of deaths, accounting for 5.2 % of 5.1 million deaths due to injuries and violence in 2012.

Pk scan ita