Major burns in pregnancy.

From June 1986 to May 1991, there were 1,931 patients to be treated for burns in Linkou Burn Unit, at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Seven patients, aged 24 to 32 years, were pregnant and had burns greater than 10% of total body surface area (TBSA). The severity of the dermal injuries was diagnosed as partial or full thickness. Patient's gestational ages ranged from 8 to 38 weeks. Five patients had normal deliveries at term; one patient had intrauterine fetal death 7 weeks after the burn injury, and one patient had premature labor at gestational age of 33 weeks. Termination of the pregnancy was never done in our series. Active medical treatment together with conservative wound care should be the standard in each trimester of pregnancy.