IntroductionSevere thermal injury is characterized by profound morbidity and mortality. Advances in burn and critical care, including early excision and grafting, aggressive resuscitation and advances in antimicrobial therapy have made substantial contributions to decrease morbidity and mortality. Despite these advances, death still occurs. Our aim was to determine the predominant causes of death in burned pediatric patients in order to develop new treatment avenues and future trajectories associated with increased survival.MethodsPrimary causes of death were reviewed from 144 pediatric autopsy reports. Percentages of patients that died from anoxic brain injuries, sepsis, or multi-organ failure were calculated by comparing to the total number of deaths. Data was stratified by time (from 1989 to 1999, and 1999 to 2009), and gender. Statistical analysis was done by chi-squared, Student's t-test and Kaplan-Meier for survival where applicable. Significance was accepted as P < 0.05.ResultsFive-thousand two-hundred-sixty patients were admitted after burn injury from July 1989 to June 2009, and of those, 145 patients died after burn injury. Of these patients, 144 patients had an autopsy. The leading causes of death over 20 years were sepsis (47%), respiratory failure (29%), anoxic brain injury (16%), and shock (8%). From 1989 to 1999, sepsis accounted for 35% of deaths but increased to 54% from 1999 to 2009, with a significant increase in the proportion due to antibiotic resistant organisms (P < 0.05).ConclusionsSepsis is the leading cause of death after burn injury. Multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria now account for the bulk of deaths due to sepsis. Further improvement in survival may require improved strategies to deal with this problem.

Rationale: Hyperglycemia and insulin resistance have been shown to increase morbidity and mortality in severely burned patients, and glycemic control appears essential to improve clinical outcomes. However, to date no prospective randomized study exists that determines whether intensive insulin therapy is associated with improved post-burn morbidity and mortality. Objectives: To determine whether intensive insulin therapy is associated with improved post-burn morbidity. Methods: A total of 239 severely burned pediatric patients with burns over greater than 30% of their total body surface area were randomized (block randomization 1:3) to intensive insulin treatment (n 5 60) or control (n 5 179). Measurements and Main Results: Demographics, clinical outcomes, sepsis, glucose metabolism, organ function, and inflammatory, acutephase, and hypermetabolic responses were determined. Demographics were similar in both groups. Intensive insulin treatment significantly decreased the incidence of infections and sepsis compared with controls (P , 0.05). Furthermore, intensive insulin therapy improved organ function as indicated by improved serum markers, DENVER2 scores, and ultrasound (P , 0.05). Intensive insulin therapy alleviated post-burn insulin resistance and the vast catabolic response of the body (P , 0.05). Intensive insulin treatment dampened inflammatory and acute-phase responses by deceasing IL-6 and acute-phase proteins compared with controls (P , 0.05). Mortality was 4% in the intensive insulin therapy group and 11% in the control group (P 5 0.14). Conclusions: In this prospective randomized clinical trial, we showed that intensive insulin therapy improves post-burn morbidity. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00673309).

Objective To determine the safety and efficacy of propranolol given for 1 year on cardiac function, resting energy expenditure, and body composition in a prospective randomized single-center controlled study in pediatric patients with large burns. Summary Background Data Severe burns trigger a hypermetabolic response that persists for up to 2 years after burn. Propranolol given for 1 month post burn blunts this response. Whether propranolol administration for 1 year after injury provides a continued benefit is currently unclear. Methods One-hundred seventy nine pediatric patients with >30% total body surface area burns were randomized to receive control (n = 89) or 4 mg/kg/d propranolol (n = 90) for 12 months after burn. Changes in resting energy expenditure, cardiac function, and body composition were measured acutely at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months postburn. Statistical analyses included techniques that adjust for non-normality, repeated measures, and regression analyses. P <0.05 was considered significant. Results Long-term propranolol treatment significantly reduced the percent of the predicted heart rate and percent of the predicted resting energy expenditure, decreased accumulation of central mass and central fat, prevented bone loss, and improved lean body mass accretion. There were very few adverse effects from the dose of propranolol used. Conclusions Propranolol treatment for 12 months, following thermal injury, ameliorates the hyperdynamic, hypermetabolic, hypercatabolic, and osteopenic responses in pediatric patients. This study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00675714.

Integra can be used for immediate wound coverage in children with severe burns without the associated risks of cadaver skin.