Mathematical models of healing of burns

This chapter reviews the advantages and shortcomings of several classes of mathematical models that are used for the simulation of skin evolution after serious burn trauma. The models that are considered range from purely phenomenological formalisms to agent-based models, where each cell is dealt with individually, to continuum-based models that are based on partial differential equations, and to cellular automata models. Most of the work has been published elsewhere; however, this chapter treats the relation between cellular automata models and the Fisher-Kolmogorov equation, which is an elementary continuum-based model, and several correlations between the intensity of the final contraction and several evolutionary stages during the contraction process. These matters are part of original research and have not been published anywhere else.