Epidemiology, classification, initial care, and administrative considerations for critically burned patients.

The care of major burn injuries is a critical care endeavor from the initial evaluation and admission until the patient is discharged from the burn intensive care unit. A thorough history and physical examination are essential and require expertise to classify each burn injury. The initial treatment of the burn must address stopping the burning process, insuring a patient airway, assessing inhalation injury, initiation of adequate fluid and electrolyte resuscitation, appropriate wound care, and institution of ancillary care, such as insertion of nasogastric tubes and urinary catheters, narcotic dosage, tetanus prophylaxis, laboratory studies, and environmental temperature control. Critical care units must be designed, equipped, and staffed to facilitate the safe and effective care of burned patients. A well trained and experienced multidisciplinary burn team under the direction of a surgeon who specializes in burns is essential to the ultimate outcome of the seriously burned patient. Effective communication among the burn team and with the burned patients requires formal protocols for general treatment as well as dynamic individualized care based on careful comprehensive observations and monitoring. The prognosis for these critically injured and ill patients depends on attention to every detail of their care, which can only be accomplished in a sophisticated critical care atmosphere with personnel skilled in intensive care techniques.