The Role of Palliative Care in Burns: A Scoping Review

Patients with severe burns may face distressing symptoms with a high risk of mortality as a result of their injury. The role of palliative care in burns management remains unclear.

To appraise the literature on the role of palliative care in burns management.

We used scoping review with searches in 12 databases from their inception to August 2019. The citation retrieval and retention are reported in a PRISMA statement.

39 papers comprising of 30 primary studies (26 from high-income and four from middle-income countries), four reviews, two editorials, two guidelines, and one expert board review document were retained in the review. Palliative care is used synonymously with comfort and end-of-life care in burns literature. Comfort care is mostly initiated when active treatment is withheld (early deaths) or withdrawn (late deaths), limiting its overall benefits to burn patients, their families, and health care professionals. Futility decisions are usually complex and challenging, particularly for patients in the late death category, and it is unclear if these decisions result in timely commencement of comfort care measures. Three comfort care pathways were identified, but it remained unclear how these pathways evaluated "good death" or supported the family which creates the need for the development of other evidence-based guidelines.

Palliative care is applicable in burns management, but its current role is mostly confined to the end-of-life period, suggesting that it is not been fully integrated in the management process. Evidence-based guidelines are needed to support the integration and delivery of palliative care in the burn patient population.