Journal of burn care & research : official publication of the American Burn Association
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The effect of burn center volume on mortality has been demonstrated in adults. The authors sought to evaluate whether such a relationship existed in burned children. The National Burn Repository, a voluntary registry sponsored by the American Burn Association, was queried for all data points on patients aged 18 years or less and treated from 2002 to 2011. ⋯ However, multivariate analysis identified burn center volume as a significant predictor of decreased mortality after controlling for patient characteristics including age, mechanism of injury, burn size, and presence of inhalation injury. Mortality among pediatric burn patients is low and was primarily related to patient and injury characteristics, such as burn size, inhalation injury, and burn cause. Average annual admission rate had a significant but small effect on mortality when injury characteristics were considered.
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Considerable risk of burn injury exists for those patients on home oxygen therapy (HOT) who continue to smoke. In this study, the authors sought to establish the national incidence of burns incurred while smoking on HOT and to determine the resource utilization and sequelae of these injuries. A retrospective review of the American Burn Association's National Burn Repository was conducted to identify patients burned while on HOT during the years 2002 to 2011. ⋯ The likelihood of poor prognosis was even more pronounced in patients who required intubation. Smoking was responsible for 83% of the HOT burn injuries described here. Therefore, smoking cessation counseling and treatment should be mandatory in all patients prescribed HOT.
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Only one previous case report has described scald burns secondary to hair braiding in pediatric patients. The present case study is the largest to date of scald burns as a result of hair braiding in children and adults. Charts of all 1609 female patients seen at a single burn center from 2008 to 2014 were retrospectively reviewed to identify patients with scald burns attributed to hair braiding. ⋯ Complications included functional limitations (n = 2), hypertrophic scarring (n = 1), cellulitis requiring antibiotics (n = 1), and anxiety requiring medical/psychological therapy (n = 2). This peculiar mechanism of injury not only carries inherent morbidity that includes the risks of functional limitations, infection, and psychological repercussions but also increases usage of resources through hospital admissions and multiple clinic visits. Further work in the form of targeted outreach programs is necessary to educate the community regarding this preventable mechanism of injury.
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The use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for resuscitation after burn injury has been reported in small case studies. Conventional TEE is invasive and often requires a subspecialist with a high level of training. The authors report a series of surgeon-performed hemodynamic TEE with an indwelling, less bulky, user-friendly probe. ⋯ Hemodynamic TEE is a useful adjunct to manage the burn patient who deviates off the expected course, especially if there is a question of cardiac function or volume status. It is less invasive and can be accurately performed by surgical intensivists when transthoracic echo windows are limited. The role of echocardiography in optimizing routine burn resuscitations needs to be further studied.
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Although fiber-optic bronchoscopy is essential in the diagnosis of smoke inhalation injury (INH), controversy still exists over whether or not the visualized severity of the mucosal injury predicts clinically meaningful outcomes. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the grade of mucosal INH severity was associated with various outcomes among adult burn patients. We conducted a retrospective review of all patients requiring greater than or equal to 48 hours of mechanical ventilation who were admitted between January 1, 2007 and June 1, 2014 to an adult regional American Burn Association-verified burn center. ⋯ The individual grades of the 0 to 4 AIS INH severity grading scale were not particularly robust in the prediction of various outcomes among a population of adult burn patients. However, clinically relevant trends toward worsened oxygenation over postburn days 0 to 3, longer duration of mechanical ventilation, and reduced ventilator-free days in association with more severe INH were identified when subjects were broadly stratified into low-grade (grades 1and 2) INH and high-grade (grades 3 and 4) INH. This suggests that there may clinically meaningful differences between patients with less and more severe INH, and that further refinement of the grades 0 to 4 AIS INH severity should be subjected to additional investigation.