Rationale for early tangential excision and grafting in burn patients.

Early excision and grafting of the burn wound in the first 9 days remain the keys to survival for patients with major burn injuries. In the last 7-year-period, 54 major burn cases were treated in our burn facility, the only Burn Center in Istanbul. Early excision and grafting were performed to 32 of them, admitted in the first week. Others were admitted later and managed conservatively. Their follow-up results in terms of mortality and morbidity rates were compared. In addition to improvement in the prognosis, early excision and grafting procedures decreased the duration of hospitalization and cost of burn treatment.