"Had this patient been treated with acute burn debridement and...

"Had this patient been treated with acute burn debridement and autografting as is standard practice in many units, his sternotomy incision would have had to proceed through immature skin grafts that would likely have been inadequate for reliable sternotomy wound closure with high risk of sternal wire exposure and dehiscence. In fact, if we had carried out a single stage debride and graft procedure, the stress of the longer anaesthetic time, increased pain and larger wounds may have triggered an on-table cardiac event when considering the severity of his coronary vessel disease."