Safe, Expeditious Transport of the Seriously Burned Patient

HELICOPTER evacuation within the combat zone has resulted in the rapid movement of the severely injured patient to definitive treatment installations, with the consequence that patients are being treated and salvaged who would never have reached such treatment installations in previous conflicts. While this portion of the evacuation of combat injured patients involves premovement treatment of life-threatening situations, such as control of significant hemorrhage and the insurance of adequate ventilation, subsequent movement out of the theater of operations to larger installations both overseas and in the continental United States for continuation of medical care demands that certain surgical and physiological principles be observed to effect such movement in the safest, most expeditious manner according to the following: Evaluation of magnitude of injury Extent of burn—"rule of nines" Depth of burn Fluid therapy Secure intravenous pathway Brooke formula Indwelling urethral catheter Tracheostomy if needed Care of burn wound; escharotomies if required