Development of Burn Medicine in China

Abstract

Belonging to general surgery, burns did not become a specialty until World War II. The attack of atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in tens of thousands of burned casualties in an instant, which attracted worldwide attention to burns with the first Burns Center established by the US army. Whereas in China, people only started to attach importance to burns during the Korean War when the US troops used enormous incendiary weapons that led to an increasing incidence of burns in the Chinese volunteer forces, so that more and more training courses for burns and plastic surgery were organized. In 1952, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences set up Burns Research Team. In 1957, Second Military Medical University and Academy of Military Medical Sciences cofounded Emergency Surgical Hospital with a Burns Unit. The period of the “Great Leap Forward” in 1958 saw many severely burned patients. In August 1958, Shanghai Guang Ci Hospital accomplished the world’s first successful rescue for a patient with over 80 % of burned area and set up a burns treatment unit. Soon after various provincial and municipal hospitals, military universities, General Hospital and Military General Hospital all established burns wards. Thus, China started extensive and profound research on burns and launched the construction of Burns Medical Science, leading to rapid improvement in burns prevention and treatment. In December 1958 and in January 1959, the State Ministry of Health and the Health Bureau of PLA General Logistics Department convened field meetings of experience exchanges in which burns treatment protocols were drawn up. In 1962, the Burns Professional Team of CPLA was established with Third Military Medical University as the leading unit. Since then, Army Conferences on Burns have been held every 2 years except for the period of the Cultural Revolution. Till now 20 such conferences have been organized and have played a promoting role in the development of burns research in China. By the beginning of the 1980s, the level of burns prevention and treatment in China had significantly improved over 20 years of endeavor. As many burns specialists had been trained and quite a few high-level bases for burns prevention and treatment had been set up, it won a great reputation within the medical fields in China and had a considerable impact among the international peers. The senior experts in burns area, such as Shi Jixiang and Li Ao, suggested that we should initiate Burns Associations and start publications in order to further advance the academic study. In 1982, the experts from Shanghai Ruijin Hospital; Second, Third, and Fourth Military Medical Universities; PLA General Hospital; and Jishuitan Hospital made a joint proposal for the establishment of Burns Association. In 1983, Burns Group of Surgery Society of Chinese Medical Association was founded in Shanghai upon the approval of the State Ministry of Health and Chinese Medical Association. In 1986, Burns Society of Chinese Medical Association was established in Tianjin upon the approval of China Association for Science and Technology and Chinese Medical Association. These facilitated the organization of academic exchanges and the promotion of academic development, so that the system of burns treatment gradually formed a network, which in turn played a critical role in the rescue for emergent events and the treatment for mass burned casualties.