Therapy of severely burned patients; eleven years' study at the University of Minnesota.

Abstract

Death still claims a high percentage of seriously burned patients. Where 55% or more of the body surface is severely burned, the mortality rates are in the range of 85% in most clinics. Owing to a better understanding of fluid and electrolyte balances in patients with severe burns, these critically injured people often survive the initial shock period of the postburn state only to succumb with sepsis, hepatic failure, cardiac complications, or other types of medical emergencies in the later postburn period. We are immediately aware that further advances must be made in effecting earlier, more complete grafting of larger burned areas, with an over-all reduction of the chronic, or reconstructive, phase of the problem. In a recent report four American medical centers failed to show any improvement in mortality of burned patients in the 15%-35% body-surface burn group, and also in the 70%-100% body-surface burn group, when they compared