The Surgical clinics of North America
-
The early management of burn patients requires a set of supportive procedures in addition to excision and closure operations. Most supportive procedures related to vascular access, tracheostomy, and enteral feeding access are identical to those required by trauma patients and are not covered here. ⋯ Subsequently, acute excision and closure operations dominate patients' needs. These operations have evolved in recent years to be less ablative, less bloody, and less physiologically stressful.
-
Burn patients provide numerous challenges to the anesthesiologist. It is important to understand the multiple physiologic disruptions that follow a burn injury as well as the alterations in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of commonly used anesthetics. Thought must be given to surgery during initial fluid resuscitation and the airway challenges many of these patients present. Finally, the central role of pain management through all phases of care is a constant concern.
-
Marked expansion of physiologic understanding and the improvement of burn patient outcomes have resulted from multidisciplinary clinical/laboratory research programs at burn centers in the United States and elsewhere.
-
Surg. Clin. North Am. · Aug 2014
ReviewOn the horizon: research priorities in burns for the next decade.
This review demonstrates that many advances have been made in burn care that have made dramatic differences in mortality, clinical outcomes, and quality of life in burn survivors; however, much work remains. In reality, the current standard of care is insufficient and we cannot be satisfied with the status quo. We must strive for the following goals: no deaths due to burn, no scarring, and no pain. These particular goals have only begun to be confronted.
-
Necrotizing skin and soft tissue infections are severe bacterial infections resulting in rapid and life-threatening soft tissue destruction and necrosis along soft tissue planes.