An almost total body burn treated with hypothermia

Abstract

Summary A barefoot, lightly dressed boy sustained almost complete body burns and inhalation burn in addition. As his temperature began to rise in the post-burn period, hypothermia was used to keep the temperature within reasonable limits. The hypothermia was necessary to regulate body temperature until the twelfth day, about the usual length of time for first and second degree burns to heal. Three weeks post-burn, the third degree area of skin loss (40 per cent.) was grafted using the boy's mother as a skin donor. Thirty-nine days after the burn he was discharged from the hospital, his mother's skin having been replaced by his own. Hypothermia was the only additional factor in the standard treatment of what seemed an almost certainly fatal burn.