Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
-
Optimizing cardiovascular function to ensure adequate tissue oxygen delivery is a key objective in the care of critically ill burn patients. In recent years several less invasive hemodynamic monitoring techniques (arterial waveform analysis techniques) have become available in clinical practice. These alternative techniques provide beat-to-beat cardiac output measurement and permit preload assessment using volumetric parameters. The aim of this article is to review the currently available data regarding to use of less invasive hemodynamic monitoring methods using the pulse wave analysis in burn unit setting.
-
The survival rates for burn patients have improved substantially in the past few decades due to advances in modern medical care in specialized burn centers. Burn wound infections are one of the most important and potentially serious complications that occur in the acute period following injury. ⋯ The value of infection prevention has been acknowledged in organized burn care since its establishment and is of crucial importance. This review focuses on modern aspects of the epidemiology, diagnosis, management, and prevention of burn wound infections and sepsis.
-
The quantity and quality of research evidence in peer-reviewed burn care journals have never been evaluated. The aim of this study was to empirically assess the evidence available in this literature. ⋯ The burn care literature suffers from a relative shortage of high-quality evidence. More randomised controlled trials are warranted.
-
The Burn Specific Health Scale (BSHS) is the most commonly used instrument used to evaluate burn survivors' quality of life (QOL). Multiple forms of the instrument exist; however, the literature lacks clarity in regard as to why a particular version of the BSHS was used and how the instrument performed in a variety of samples. This paper provides a review of the literature of the variations of the BSHS, its utility for research and clinical practice, and scoring concerns.
-
All deep second and third degree burns are at risk to develop hypertrophic scars which can severely undermine the quality of survival. To assess the severity of scarring, several technical devices or tools have been introduced to evaluate one or more aspects of the scar, enabling comparison of different treatment protocols and allowing an objective follow-up. The objective of this study was to review which tools can be used in objective burn scar assessment. ⋯ Scar tools enable objective and reproducible evaluation of scars, which is essential for scientific studies and medico-legal purposes, and in selected cases for the clinical follow-up of an individual patient. Further studies to evaluate these tools on scars are nevertheless required.