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Practical management of burns and inhalation injury

  • Pulmonology in Combat Medicine (G Eapen, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Burn injuries are often associated with profound physiologic derangements due to the nature of the underlying injuries and the overwhelming inflammatory response that ensues. In recent decades, a number of advancements have been made in the management of thermal burns. Inhalation injury frequently occurs in patients with thermal burns and can be a significant source of morbidity and mortality. Due to the intense inflammatory response that occurs after a burn injury, early aggressive volume resuscitation is necessary to minimize the risk of developing multiorgan dysfunction. Adequate sedation and analgesia, early enteral nutrition, physical rehabilitation, excision and grafting, and other supportive measures are also critically important to promoting healing and improving long-term outcomes. This review outlines a general approach to the management of patients with burn and inhalation injuries and highlights some of the recent advances in the care of these patients.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance,•• Of major importance

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Antonio Military Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX, USA

    Nathan L. Boyer & Damon A. Forbes

  2. United States Army Institute of Surgical Research, 3698 Chambers Pass STE B, Fort Sam Houston, TX, 78234, USA

    Kevin K. Chung

  3. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Kevin K. Chung

  4. Pulmonary and Critical Care Service, Department of Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX, 78234, USA

    Nathan L. Boyer & Damon A. Forbes

Authors
  1. Nathan L. Boyer
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  2. Damon A. Forbes
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  3. Kevin K. Chung
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin K. Chung.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Chung has a patent entitled Decision Assist Method for Resuscitation licensed to the Department of Defense.

Nathan Boyer and Damon Forbes declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and animal rights and informed consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Pulmonology in Combat Medicine

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Boyer, N.L., Forbes, D.A. & Chung, K.K. Practical management of burns and inhalation injury. Curr Pulmonol Rep 5, 63–69 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13665-016-0140-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13665-016-0140-1

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