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Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) is a rare condition affecting an estimated 1 to 2 cases per million per year, with reported mortality between 30% and 50% typically because of multiorgan failure or sepsis. Acute pulmonary complications from this disorder include bronchial mucosal sloughing, pulmonary edema, and infectious pneumonitis. Pulmonary complications in TEN occurred in 46% of patients in one series. Use of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) in adults with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has increased markedly during the past few years after successful treatment in adults with swine flu (H1N1) and publication of the CESAR (conventional ventilation or ECMO for severe adult respiratory failure) trial, which demonstrated a lower mortality and disability at 6 months for patients referred to an ECLS center. The suggested ideal candidate for ECLS would be one with an acute, reversible, survivable illness if not for associated ARDS, no significant comorbidities, no contraindication to systemic anticoagulation, less than 8 days on mechanical ventilation, and younger than 65 years of age., Published in the Journal of Burn Care & Research, v35 n6 pE428-E430, November/December 2014.

Historically, mucormycosis infections have been associated with high mortality. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence, associated mortality, and management strategies of mucormycosis in a major burn center. A retrospective review was performed via obtaining all patients with mucormycosis admitted from January 2003 to November 2009 at our adult burn center was performed obtaining demographic data relevant to fungal burn wound infections or colonization. Aggressive surgical intervention should be undertaken for invasive mucormycosis; additionally, implementation of standardized protocols for patients with large soft tissue injuries may mitigate mucormycosis superimposition., Published in Burns, v40 p1689-1695, 2014.

The objective of this study was to identify the 100 most cited, peer-reviewed burn-related articles over the past half century. Burn care presents ongoing challenges to both U.S. civilian and military healthcare personnel. Improvements in burn survival and quality of life are the result of advances in burn research. The Web of Science (including Science Citation Index) was searched for the most cited articles related to burn care, published from 1955 to the present. The most cited article was Permanent coverage of large burn wounds with autologous cultured human epithelium, by G.G. Gallico et al, New England Journal of Medicine, 1984 (711 citations). Between the 1970s and the 1990s, there was a near doubling of the number of highly cited publications with each subsequent decade. A total of 85% of the articles were on the topics of pathophysiology (37%), wounds, tissue, or dressings (31%), or organ failure/sepsis (17%). B.A. Pruitt Jr. (2320 citations), D.N. Herndon (1972 citations), and A.D. Mason Jr. (1435 citations) were the most cited authors. This study identified some of the most important contributions to burn research and the areas of greatest scientific interest to the specialty during the past five decades, and highlights key research that has contributed to the evolution of modern burn care., Published in the Journal of Burn Care & Research, v35 n2 p176-185, Mar/Apr 2014.

BACKGROUND: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) prevalence and related outcomes in burned military casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan have not been described previously. The objective of this article was to report ARDS prevalence and its associated in-hospital mortality in military burn patients. METHODS: Demographic and physiologic data were collected retrospectively on mechanically ventilated military casualties admitted to our burn intensive care unit from January 2003 to December 2011. Patients with ARDS were identified in accordance with the new Berlin definition of ARDS. Subjects were categorized as having mild, moderate, or severe ARDS. Multivariate logistic regression identified independent risk factors for developing moderate-to-severe ARDS. The main outcome measure was the prevalence of ARDS in a cohort of patients burned as a result of recent combat operations. RESULTS: A total of 876 burned military casualties presented during the study period, ofwhom291 (33.2%) required mechanical ventilation. Prevalence of ARDS in this cohort was 32.6%, with a crude overall mortality of 16.5%. Mortality increased significantly with ARDS severity: mild (11.1%), moderate (36.1%), and severe (43.8%) compared with no ARDS (8.7%) ( p 0.001). Predictors for the development of moderate or severe ARDS were inhalation injury (odds ratio [OR], 1.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-3.54; p = 0.046), Injury Severity Score (ISS) (OR, 1.04; 95%CI, 1.01-1.07; p = 0.0021), pneumonia (OR, 198; 95%CI, 1.07-3.66; p = 0.03), and transfusion of fresh frozen plasma (OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.01-1.72; p = 0.04). Size of burn was associated with moderate or severe ARDS by univariate analysis but was not an independent predictor of ARDS by multivariate logistic regression (p 0.05). Age, size of burn, and moderate or severe ARDS were independent predictors of mortality., Published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, v76 n3 p821-827, 2014. Prepared in collaboration with the San Antonio Military Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD.

Accelerating the healing process and reducing pain during healing are beneficial for the following reasons: faster return to work, lower risk of wound infection, improved quality of life, and possibly reduced need for analgesia. This clinical study assessed the effectiveness of a new oxygen-diffusion dressing (OxyBand; Oxyband Technologies, St. Louis, MO) compared with standard Xeroform gauze dressings (Convidien, Mansfield, MA), in the care of skin-graft donor sites in burn patients. Time to healing was the primary endpoint, and pain scores and cosmetic outcome were also assessed. This was a prospective, randomized, controlled study of burn patients undergoing harvesting of two donor sites. Patients were followed at predetermined time points for 30 to 45 days to determine the time to reepithelialization, cosmetic appearance, and pain. Subjects were adult burn patients with less than 30% TBSA burns admitted to the burn center, who required excision and grafting. Twenty patients were enrolled, of whom 17 completed the study. Average age was 35 years. Average burn size was 9.2% TBSA. Patients underwent harvesting of split thickness skin grafts with one donor wound dressed with OxyBand and the other dressed in Xeroform gauze. Wounds were inspected and photographed on postoperative days 4 and 8, and then every 2 days until the donor wounds were healed. Pain scores at each site were also collected at these visits (rated by patients on a scale from 0 to 10). Mean time to wound healing for OxyBand was 9.3 1.7 days; for Xeroform, 12.4 2.7 days (P .001). Pain scores were lower (P .01) at the OxyBand site compared with the Xeroform site at all time points during postoperative days 4 to 12. There was no difference in the cosmetic outcome of the wounds at 30 to 45 days postoperatively. This study revealed a decrease in the time to healing and in pain at donor sites dressed with an oxygen-diffusion dressing., Published in the Journal of Burn Care & Research, v35 n3 p214-218, May/Jun 2014.

Introduction: Burn wounds are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, and improved outcomes are demonstrated with early closure of both primary burn wounds and skin donor sites. Thus, technology that decreases the healing time of burns and donor sites would be potentially lifesaving. We present the results of a single-center, prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of silver-coated dressing with active microcurrent in comparison to silver-coated dressing with sham microcurrent on wound-closure time for autogenous skin donor sites. Methods: Four hundred five patients were screened for treatment of their donor sites using a silver-coated nylon dressing with either sham or active microcurrent stimulation. Thirty patients were enrolled in the study and then randomized. Of these, 5 patients were removed from analysis due to protocol deviations. Differences in time-to-closure were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and the proportional hazard regression model. Subjective verbal pain rating scores (0Y10; 0, no pain; 10, worst pain) were also recorded. All devices were blinded and programmed at an outside facility, so that every patient had either an active or sham device. The study was unblinded only after the final patient s donor site had healed. All patients achieved donor-site healing before postoperative day 20. The 14 patients in the active microcurrent group [mean, 10.8 (2.9) days; range, 7Y15 days] experienced no difference in time to wound healing as compared to the remaining patients in the sham microcurrent group [mean, 11.1 (2.0) days; range, 8Y14 days; P = 0.75]. There were no differences in pain from one group compared to the other. None of the donor sites exhibited clinical signs of infection. Conclusions: In a sample size of 25 burn patients, the addition of direct microcurrent to silver-nylon dressings did not decrease time to wound closure of skin donor sites, and it did not show a difference in reported, Published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, 2013.

Adverse reactions during hemodialysis are extremely common and include a wide range of clinical presentations from mild to life threatening. We present a case of a 34 year old woman in the Burn Intensive Care Unit, who developed acute kidney injury requiring renal replacement therapy. She was placed on continuous veno-venous hemofiltration with the NxStage(trademark) machine which uses a synthetic PUREMA(trademark) polyethersulfone filter sterilized by gamma radiation. Within two minutes of initiating hemofiltration, the patient complained of pruritus as well as dyspnea and became flushed and agitated. She subsequently developed hypotension ultimately resulting in cardiopulmonary arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated and the patient was given epinephrine with return of spontaneous circulation. The following day, the patient was rechallenged with a PUREMA(trademark) filter, and had a similar reaction with flushing, dyspnea, pruritus and hypotension requiring treatment to be discontinued. The patient was transitioned to the Prismaflex(trademark) filter, another synthetic membrane, which she tolerated well and continued to utilize through the remainder of her hospital course without complication. Her clinical presentation was consistent with an anaphylactoid reaction, though a tryptase level was not obtained and a radioallergosorbent test performed with membrane material was negative. This case shows the difficulty of identifying the cause of hypersensitivity reactions involving synthetic membranes not sterilized by ethylene oxide, a commonly use sterilizing agent known to cause hypersensitivity reactions. This rare, but potentially fatal reaction has not previously been reported with a PUREMA(trademark) filter and this case should raise awareness of hypersensitivity reactions with this widely used method of renal replacement therapy., Published in the International Journal of Artificial Organs, v36 n5 p363-366, 2013.

Background/Aims: Dysnatremias have been evaluated in many populations and have been found to be significantly associated with mortality. However, this relationship has not been well described in the burn population. Methods: Admissions to the burn center at our institution from January 2003 to December 2008 were examined. Independent variables included gender, age, percentage total body surface area burned (%TBSA), percentage of third-degree burn, inhalation injury, injury severity score (ISS), Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN) stage, hypernatremia, and hyponatremia. They were examined via Cox proportional hazard regression models against death. Moderate to severe hypo- and hypernatremia were defined as serum sodium 130 and 150 mmol/l, respectively. Results: In 1,969 subjects with a mean age of 36.3 + or - 16.4 years, a median %TBSA of 9 (interquartile range 4-20) and a median ISS of 5 (interquartile range 1-16) hypernatremia occurred in 9.9% (n = 194), while hyponatremia occurred in 6.8% (n = 134) with mortality rates of 33.5 and 13.8%, respectively. Patients without a dysnatremia had a mortality rate of 4.3%. On Cox proportional hazard regression age, %TBSA, ISS, and AKIN stage were found to be significant predictors of mortality. Hypernatremia (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.212-3.31; p = 0.0066), but not hyponatremia (HR 1.72, 95% CI 0.89-3.34; p = 0.1068) was associated with mortality. Conclusions: In the burn population, hypernatremia, but not hyponatremia, is an independent predictor of mortality., Published in American Journal of Nephrology, v37 p59-64, 2013.

The aim of this article was to determine the effect of cirrhosis on mortality in thermally injured adult patients. We conducted a retrospective review of patients admitted to our burn center during 2003 to 2010. Eight hundred eight patients were included in this study, of whom 24 had the diagnosis of cirrhosis established from electronic medical records and/or autopsy reports. The mortality rate for the cirrhotic patients was 50%, and for the noncirrhotic patients it was 14.8%. On logistic regression, age (odds ratio [OR], 1.08; confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.10), TBSA (OR, 1.08; CI, 1.06-1.10), inhalation injury (OR, 3.17, CI, 1.61-6.25), and cirrhosis (OR, 8.78; CI, 2.97-25.98) had independent effects on mortality. Of the 24 cirrhotic patients in this study, the admission Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score for the patients who survived hospitalization was 12.1 plus or minus 4.0, and for the patients who died it was 13.8 plus or minus 6.0 (P =.4). When comparing patients with 10 to 50% TBSA burn, the mortality rate for cirrhotic patients was 83.3% (10/12), and for the noncirrhotic patients it was only 12.7% (50/394), P less than .0001. Adults with cirrhosis are rarely able to survive burn injuries greater than 10% TBSA. Although we did not detect a significant association between admission Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score and death, the presence of cirrhosis is a high premorbid contributor and, therefore, new strategies are needed to improve outcomes., Published in the Journal of Burn Care and Research, v34 n1 p115-119, January/February 2013.

This study provides objective data on the practice of allograft usage in severely burned patients. Furthermore, gaps in our knowledge are identified, and areas for further research are delineated. Using an institutional review board-approved protocol, active duty military patients injured while deployed in support of overseas contingency operations and treated at our burn center between March 2003 and December 2010 were identified. Their electronic medical records were reviewed for allograft use, TBSA burned, injury severity score, anatomic distribution of burns, operative burden, length of stay, transfusions, and outcome. Among 844 patients, 112 (13.3%) received allograft and 732 (86.7%) did not. The amount of allograft used per patient varied and was not normally distributed (median, 23.5; interquartile range, 69.5). Patients received allograft skin an average of 12.75 times during their admission. Allografted patients sustained severe burns ( , 53.8% TBSA); most were transfused (71.2%) and grafted frequently, averaging every 7.45 days. Most commonly, allograft was placed on the extremities (66.5%) followed by the trunk (44.2%); however, the vast majority of allografted patients also had concomitant burns of the head (91.1%) and hands (87.5%). All-cause mortality among the allografted patients was 19.1%. In conclusion, allograft is commonly used in the surgical treatment of severe burns. Although there are no anatomic limitations to allograft placement, there are distinct patterns of use. Given the role of allograft in the acute management of large burns, there is need for further investigation of its effect on mortality, morbidity, and antigenicity., Published in the Journal of Burn Care & Research, v34 n1 p168-175, 2013.