Burn injury: what's in a name? Labels used for burn injury classification: a review of the data from 2000-2012

Through the years, the burn injury has been described using a variety of labels. These labels have ranged from one word terms to phrases including degrees of injury or more descriptive terms. A search was conducted relying on a common general internet search engine. After multiple searches varying the keywords, the top 100 searches identified the most prevalent terms or phrases, ranging from the common to the more obscure. The search was repeated using the most prevalent terms or phrases identified in the common internet search engine, focusing on either the title or abstract for all papers indexed in PubMed. This process narrowed the attention to the most common terms or phrases used by the academics in their published work. This work therefore focused on measuring the specific terms being used today and their frequency of use in the peer reviewed papers indexed in the PubMed system. It is difficult to focus on the unique aspects of any given profession when there is confusion surrounding a common vocabulary. By identifying and noting in the academic literature the most commonly used labels, a point of reference can be created for future work. Furthermore, having a common and accurate set of labels that are uniformly applied across the profession is critical for academia to include in training and education programs for physicians, nurses, and paramedical staff.