[The Treatment of Major Burn Injuries]

Major burn injuries constitute a systemic disease. In addition to completely understanding the mechanisms of wound healing, precise burn depth and area assessment is critical to the successful management of burn injuries. The recent advancements in post-burn fluid resuscitation, tangential burn excision and grafting, effective enteral tube feeding, and aggressive sepsis treatment have helped greatly increase the survival rates for major burn injuries. However, the restricted joint motion that results from hypertrophic scar contracture remains the main challenge facing burn survivors. In conclusion, as the course of the treatment and rehabilitation is prolonged and multifaceted, a complete treatment plan is always necessary in addition to teamwork among physicians, nurses, social workers, physical therapists, and psychologists. Finally, social return is the final goal of treatment and may be achieved only through mutual support and understanding among the members of the burn treatment and rehabilitation team.