Sepsis in surgical patients: Burn sepsis

Abstract

Patients with large burn injuries remain a challenge. The loss of skin barrier integrity and induced immunosuppression after injury increases their vulnerability to infection. Sepsis remains the primary cause of death for burn-injured patients who survive their acute injury and resuscitation. The objective of this work is to describe the current understanding and management of sepsis in the burn-injured patient and newer strategies to approach its management. Current understanding of the systemic inflammatory response to burn injury and sepsis, preventative strategies, and novel research will be discussed. Understanding the origin of burn sepsis from wounds themselves is key to understanding current paradigms. Infection control and management begins from the time of injury and continues throughout the patient’s hospital course. The use of personal protective equipment, burn unit design considerations, and optimization of prevention protocols and catheter care all play a role in burn sepsis prevention and management. The emergence of drug-resistant pathogens poses a particular challenge for burn patients due to the chronicity with which their wounds are sometimes open. The difficulty of systemic antibiotics to reach wounds has underscored the need to anticipate resistant organisms moving forward. Antibiotic strategies and newer approaches, such as phage therapy, will be discussed. Multi-omics approaches to understanding burn sepsis have developed in hopes of identifying patients more susceptible or at risk of developing burn sepsis. As with many aspects of burn care, a multidisciplinary, proactive approach to the management of burn sepsis is key to minimizing the morbidity and mortality associated with this complication.