Predicting Outcomes of Burns

The chances of survival after burn injury have increased steadily during the past 50 years. At the end of World War II, only 50 percent of patients survived burns involving 40 percent of their total body-surface area. Today, over 50 percent of all patients with burns involving 80 percent of their total body-surface area survive, and the survival rate may be even higher for adolescents and young adults, among whom almost no burn is too extensive to preclude recovery. This remarkable success can be attributed to a number of therapeutic developments, including vigorous fluid resuscitation, the early excision of burn . . .