5 - Burn Management in Disasters and Humanitarian Crises

Abstract

Mass casualty events and disasters are marked by a mismatch (disproportion) between the number of victims and the resources available for care. It is crucial that in such events, a central incident command post be rapidly established to (1) determine the number and severity of injured people, (2) identify and contact the centers available for care, (3) perform burn triage, and (4) distribute the burn victims according to the severity of their injuries to available burn centers. Triage is an ongoing process that must be repeated at several key junctures. It is common to retriage burn patients from a nonburn center to a burn center, but it may also be necessary to retriage patients from one burn center to another when surge capacity is reached. Distribution of burn victims across international boundaries may be needed to avoid overloading local burn centers. Burn mass casualty events are complex situations that require cooperation among rescue teams, security agencies, medical providers and hospitals, technical relief teams, burn centers, rehabilitation centers, transport resources, and many more who are involved in acute care. Thus, it is of utmost importance to provide administrative support and funding to enable comprehensive training and preparation for these events.