The Problem of Thermal Burns: 1944

Before 1939 an average of 5,000 to 7,000 burn deaths occurred in the United States every year.1The present war has resulted in an unprecedented number of thermal burns, so that this subject is now in a phase of especial importance. Burn treatment has always been somewhat empiric. The peculiar nature of the burn wound, representing as it does an actual destruction of tissue, renders no treatment completely effective. Because of this fact literally hundreds of burn remedies have been suggested. It is only recently that some order has come out of all this confusion. Possibly the two chief advances that have led to this are (1) the introduction of plasma therapy by Weiner, Rowlette and Elman2in 1936 and (2) the application of the method of aseptic pressure dressings in local burn therapy by Koch3in 1941. It is interesting to note how these two advances