Evaluation of the Therapeutic Effectiveness of a Composite Agent in the Treatment of Radiation–Thermal Damage

The results of evaluating the therapeutic effectiveness of a composition based on antiradiation serum and metabolic products of bifidobacteria on laboratory animals subjected to experimental combined radiation and thermal effects are presented. In this work 124 mongrel white rats of both sexes with a live weight of 180–220 g were used as a biological model. The simulation of radiation damage to the body was carried out by a single external irradiation of animals on a Puma gamma installation with a ¹³⁷Cs radiation source with an exposure dose of 8.5 × 10^–2 A/kg in an absorbed dose of 7.5 Gy. Thermal injury was inflicted by applying a brass plate heated to 200°C with an area of 4.9 cm² with a retention exposure of eight seconds to the trimmed area of the upper third of the thigh, inducing a grade III burn. The effectiveness of the therapeutic drug was evaluated according to the following criteria: changes in the titer of the compliment, the concentration of radiotoxin and thermotoxin, changes in the methodological parameters of the peripheral blood, the degree of burn damage, survival, and life expectancy of fallen animals. The results of tests evaluating the therapeutic effectiveness of the tested composition showed that a single subcutaneous injection of a medicinal product at a dose of 20 mg/kg followed by application of an anti-burn ointment based on bee podmore and St. John’s wort oil at intervals of 24, 48, and 168 h accelerated the formation of a burn scab by 1.75 times (p < 0.01), complete rejection of the burn scab increased by 1.15 times (p < 0.05), and the complete healing of the burn wound accelerated by 1.18 times compared with the control groups, thereby increasing the survival rate to 87.5% (p < 0.05) of animals exposed to two-factor exposure to the affected factors, while increasing the average life expectancy to 28.0 days versus 6.5 days in the control (irradiation + burn).