Long-term Outcome of Children Surviving Massive Burns

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Abstract
The successful treatment of massive burn injuries is one of the major advances in trauma care of the last 20 years. Before the 1970s, a burn involving more than one third of the body surface was almost always fatal; the few patients who did not die from burn shock during the first few postinjury days died from wound sepsis in the subsequent weeks.1 Improved fluid and electrolyte management and critical care combined with early wound excision and closure2,3 have had a profound impact on the natural history of such injuries.4-6 Although it has become possible to save the lives of massively burned children,7 the wisdom of doing so has become a health policy and ethical question.