Annals of burns and fire disasters
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Ann Burns Fire Disasters · Mar 2013
Primary triage of mass burn casualties with associated severe traumatic injuries.
A key aim in any mass disaster event is to avoid diverting resources by overwhelming specialized tertiary centers with minor casualties. The most crucial aspect of an effective disaster response is pre-hospital triage at the scene. ⋯ In most major burns disasters, victims mostly have combined trauma burn injuries and form a heterogeneous group with a broad range of devastating injuries. Are these victims primarily burn patients or trauma patients? Should they be taken care of in a burn center or in a trauma center or only in a combined burns-trauma center? Who makes the decision? The present review is aimed at answering some of these questions.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI), although rare, is a major complication of burn injury that commonly leads to mortality. It results from a complex interplay of various cellular and neuro-humoral changes affecting burn patients. Guidelines for the treatment of this entity are still not well defined; therefore, prevention and early diagnosis are key to avoid the unfavorable prognosis of AKI. ⋯ The aim of this review is to present the salient features in burn patient physiology that contribute to AKI. Strategies for identifying early AKI are presented. Finally, the different treatment modalities are revisited.