Severe burn injury results in a systemic inflammatory response that leads to increased capillary permeability and fluid leak into the interstitium. This global systemic capillary leak can be attributed, at least in part, to inflammatory mediators produced as a result of cellular injury. Plasma exchange has been used in the management of a number of illnesses with a significant inflammatory component, and, therefore, may have a role in the early management of burn injury. The purpose of this study was to review our institutional experience using plasma exchange in the management of severe burn injury. We performed a retrospective review of all patients receiving plasma exchange at our burn center between 2001 and 2005. Data collected included the following: burn size, presence of inhalation injury, resuscitation fluid received, urine output, lactate levels, base deficit levels, and hematocrit before and after the exchange procedure. A total of 37 patients underwent plasma exchange during the 5-year study period and seven patients underwent two plasma exchange treatments. Average TBSA burned was 48.6%(range 18-82) and 73% of patients sustained an inhalation injury. After plasma exchange, hourly fluid volume received significantly decreased (P <.05) and base deficit, lactate, and hematocrit levels significantly improved. Plasma exchange in the early resuscitation period was associated with decreased fluid administration, as well as increased urine output in the period during and immediately after the procedure. These data suggest that plasma exchange may provide a useful tool in the management of severe burn injury.

Despite advances in medical and surgical techniques, older adults tend to be at high risk for adverse outcomes following burn injury. The purpose of this study was to examine the relative impacts of age and medical comorbidities on outcome following injury in a cohort of older adults. This was a retrospective study of all patients age 55 and over admitted to the University of Washington Burn Center from 1999 to 2003. To examine the effect of baseline medical comorbidities on outcome, a Charlson Comorbidity Index score was calculated for each patient. Multivariate regression analyses were used to examine the impact of age and comorbidities on mortality and other complications. Patient records were also matched with the National Death Index to determine the effects of age and comorbidities on mortality within 1 year following hospital discharge. A total of 325 patients who were of 55 years and older were admitted to the burn center during the 5-year study period. The overall mortality rate was 18.5%. Mortality was independently associated with age, inhalation injury, and burn size. One-year mortality was significantly associated with those older than age 75 and the Charlson score. Longer length of stay was significantly associated with burn size, inhalation injury, and total number of in-hospital complications. This study demonstrates that patient age-independent of baseline medical comorbidities-and TBSA burn are the most significant factors impacting in-hospital mortality risk following burn injury. Higher number of medical comorbidities was associated with increased mortality risk within 1 year following discharge.

Improvements in outcomes for older adults sustaining burn injuries have lagged far behind those of younger patients. As this segment of the population grows, there has been an increasing interest in better understanding the epidemiology and outcomes of injury in older adults. The National Burn Repository (NBR) provides a unique opportunity to examine burn injuries on a national level. We aimed to characterize specific injury and outcome trends in older adult with burns through analysis of the NBR. We examined the records of all patients in the NBR aged 55 and older. To characterize age effects on injury and outcomes, patients were stratified into three age categories: 55 to 64 years, 65 to 74 years, and 75 years and older. Baseline characteristics, details of hospital treatment, mortality, and disposition were compared among these three age groups using chi or analysis of variance. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the impact of age on burn mortality. A total of 180,401 patient records were available from 1991 to 2005, of which 23,180 (14%) met age inclusion criteria. Mean burn size (9.6% TBSA) and percent with inhalation injury (11.3%) did not markedly differ by age. Men predominated overall (ratio 1.4:1), although women (4290) outnumbered men (3439) in the oldest age category. Length of stay per TBSA and median hospital charges increased with increasing age category, suggesting higher resource consumption with aging. Mean number of operations per patient, however, decreased with age. Mortality rates and discharge to nonindependent status increased with age. By logistic regression, the adjusted odds ratio for mortality was 2.3 (95% CI 2.1-2.7) in the 65 to 74 age group, and 5.4 (95% CI 4.8-6.1) in the oldest group when compared with the 55 to 64 age group. Mortality rates decreased significantly after 2001 across all age groups. This analysis demonstrates age-dependent differences in resource utilization and mortality risk within the older burn population and highlights the need for a national research agenda focused on management practices and outcomes in older adult with burns.

Management and proper approach to pediatric palm burns remains unclear. Our burn center's approach includes early, aggressive range of motion therapy, combined with a period of watchful waiting, reserving grafting only for those palms that do not heal in a timely manner. We reviewed our experience using this approach over a 10-year period. We performed a retrospective review of all pediatric patients with palm burns admitted to our burn center from 1994 to 2004. A total of 168 patients (194 palms) were included in the study. The average patient was 1.3 years old. A total of 168 of the injured palms (87%) healed without need for surgery. The average time to healing was 13 days (range 5-34). The 19 patients (26 palms, 13.4%) who underwent excision and grafting were managed with thick split thickness skin grafts. Of these, four patients (five palms, 19.2%) underwent secondary reconstruction, at an average of 166 days after the initial surgery. Of the 168 (87%) palms managed without surgery, only three patients (four palms) required late reconstruction (2.4%). Reconstructive procedures consisted of full-thickness skin grafts (n = 7) and z-plasty (n = 2). We have found that the majority of patients in this study healed without need for acute or reconstructive surgery. We therefore recommend aggressive hand therapy and conservative surgical management of palm burns in children.

Modern burn care is a resource intensive endeavor requiring specialized equipment, personnel, and facilities in order to provide optimum care. The costs associated with burn injury to both patients and society as a whole can be multifaceted and large. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between hospital costs, patient characteristics, and injury factors in a cohort of pediatric patients admitted to a regional burn center. We performed a review of the hospital charges accrued by pediatric patients (age <16 years) admitted to our burn center from 1994 to 2004 and explored the relationship between baseline patient, injury and hospital course characteristics and total costs. Hospital charges were converted to 2005 dollar costs using an inflation index and a cost to charge ratio. Univariate and multivariate regressions were performed to identify the factors most significantly associated with cost. In addition, we performed a subset cost analysis for patients with burns more than 20% TBSA. A total of 1443 pediatric patients (age <16) were admitted to our burn center during the study period. The overall mean hospital cost in 2005 dollars was $9026 (SD =$25,483; median =$2138). Area of full thickness burn was the only patient or injury factor significantly associated with greater hospital costs (P <.05) on multivariate analysis. No single anatomic area was associated with increased hospital costs when adjusted for total overall burn size. Injury severity was the most significant factor impacting index hospitalization costs following pediatric burn injury. Further studies defining the long-term societal costs impact of burn injury are needed as are studies that evaluate the impact of burn injury on quality of life.

The provision of optimal burn care is a resource-intensive endeavor. The American Burn Association has developed criteria to help guide the decision to refer a patient to a burn center for definitive injury care. The purpose of this study was to compare the patient and injury characteristics of patients admitted to the single verified burn center in Washington State with those treated at other facilities in the state. We performed a retrospective review of all patients admitted to a hospital with a burn injury in Washington State from 1987 to 2005 using the state's discharge database (Comprehensive Hospital Abstract Reporting System). Patient and injury factors of patients admitted to the state's single verified burn center or at other hospitals were compared. Multivariate poisson regression was used to calculate the relative risk of injury and patient factors that were significantly associated with admission to the verified burn center. From 1987 to 2005, a total of 16,531 patients were admitted to a Washington State hospital after burn injury. Of these patients, 8624 (52.2%) were treated definitively at the University of Washington Burn Center. Patients treated at this verified center had larger overall burn size (7.4% vs 4.5% TBSA, P <.001), higher percent full-thickness burn (4.3% vs 1.2%, P <.001), and higher rates of inhalation injury (2.3% vs 1.5%, P =.005). Uninsured status (relative risk = 1.46, 95% confidence interval = 1.4-1.5) was also significantly associated with treatment at the verified burn center. Injury severity and payer status were both found to be independent predictors of treatment at the single verified burn center in Washington.

The homeless are at an increased risk for traumatic injury, but little is known about the injury etiology and outcome of homeless persons who sustain burn injuries. In this study, we analyze patient and injury characteristics of homeless persons admitted to a regional burn center. This is a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to our burn center between 1994 and 2005. A total of 3700 adult patients were admitted during the study period and, of these, 72 (1.9%) were homeless. The cohort of homeless patients was compared with domiciled adult patients admitted during the same time period, analyzing baseline patient and injury characteristics and injury outcomes. Overall, homeless patients had more extensive burn injuries than domiciled patients (17.8% vs 11.2%TBSA, P <.001) and overall longer lengths of hospital stay (22 vs 12 days, P <.001). The homeless population also had significantly higher rates of alcohol (80.6% vs 12.8%, P <.001) and drug abuse (59.4% vs 12.8%, P <.001), history of mental illness (45.2% vs 11.0%, P <.001), and injury by assault (13.9% vs 2.0%, P <.001). Homeless patients tended to have more severe injuries; higher rates of substance abuse and mental illness; increased incidence of assault by burning; and longer lengths of hospital stay. Hospitalization of a homeless patient following injury may provide a unique opportunity to address co-occurring substance abuse and mental illness and approach injury prevention to improve patients' outcomes and reduce injury recidivism.

The Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS) has been reported to be a useful tool in the diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in the critical care setting. However, the systemic inflammation associated with injury may limit the utility of CPIS in patients with burns. The purpose of this study was to determine the potential utility of CPIS in the management of burn patients. A retrospective review was performed on all burn patients who underwent quantitative culture to diagnose VAP from 2003 to 2005. CPIS was retrospectively calculated for each patient on the day of the procedure. The sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of a CPIS greater than 6 for VAP diagnosis were calculated. In addition, CPIS scores of patients with and without pneumonia were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. A total of 46 quantitative cultures were obtained in 28 patients during the study period. Average patient age was 45 +/- 19 years, average TBSA was 33 +/- 18%, and the average APACHE II score on admission was 16 +/- 6. Sixty-eight percent of patients had inhalation injury. Twenty-six quantitative cultures were positive, and 20 were negative. Mean CPIS was 5.7 for patients with negative quantitative cultures and 5.5 for patients with positive cultures (P =.41). The sensitivity of CPIS scoring was 0.3, and its specificity was 0.8. CPIS had a positive predictive value of 0.7 and negative predictive value of 0.5. CPIS-a reported reliable indicator of VAP in critically ill patients-did not accurately predict the presence of pneumonia in burn patients. VAP diagnosis in burn patients should still rely on clinical suspicion verified by quantitative culture.

The concentration of specialized burn care to relatively few centers within relatively large geographic regions requires an organized system of patient triage, referral, and transport. The purpose of this study was to identify systematic errors in either the initial evaluation or care of burn patients requiring transport more than 90 miles to a single regional burn center. Therefore, we undertook a descriptive analysis of patients transported more than 90 miles to a single regional burn center from 2000 to 2003. The outcomes of interest were duration of transport, errors in burn size estimation, errors in fluid management, appropriateness of intubation, and complications during transport. During the years 2000 to 2003, there were 1877 admissions to the burn center; 949 (51%) were transferred from an outside facility. Of these 949, 424 (45%) were transferred more than 90 miles from a referring facility to our burn center. The average transport time from injury to our burn center was 7.2 hours (range, 1.6-48). There were no patient deaths during transport, and the most common complications were loss of or inability to secure intravenous access and inability to secure an airway. Burn size estimates differed significantly (P <.001) between referring providers and burn center physicians. This study confirms that patients can be transported safely and efficiently over long distances to a regional burn center. Given the current geographic distribution of burn centers and concerns about declining numbers of burn surgeons, organized systems of patient triage and transport may become increasingly important.