Losses and Physiologic Requirements for Water and Electrolytes after Extensive Burns in Children

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Abstract
BURNS are among the most common accidental injuries of infants and children and, when extensive, have mortality rates in excess of 50 per cent. When the burned area involves more than 20 or 30 per cent of the body surface the acute trauma is usually associated with a period of hypotension and generalized circulatory disturbance characterized as a shocklike state. Subsequently, alteration of circulatory hemodynamics in such vital organs as the brain and kidneys, tendency for accumulation of fluids in the burned areas, seepage from the traumatized surface and secondary adjustments of the extracellular and intracellular fluids to both injury . . .