Hospital management of massive burns in the developing countries

Nine patients with massive burns (over 50 per cent of total body surface area) were treated at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital during a 2-year period (January 1984 to December 1985). The patients, aged between 9 and 50 years, consisted of three young females and six males. Five of the patients (55.6 per cent) survived and were discharged between 20 and 150 days after admission, while four patients (44.4 per cent) died, three of them within the first 72 h of admission. Delay and inadequate fluid resuscitation and overwhelming infection were the major factors in the morbidity and mortality of this series.