Care of the burn wound

The initial therapy of thermal injuries is directed at removal of loose debris and necrotic epidermis, alleviation of pain, and prevention of infection. Following initial wound debridement, bacterial growth in the wound itself is controlled primarily through the use of tropical antibiotic agents and daily hydrotherapy to clean the wounds and remove any loose eschar. Effectiveness of topical therapy is monitored by quantitative burn wound biopsy cultures; growth of greater than 10(4) micro-organisms per gram of tissue indicates invasive burn wound sepsis. Such bacterial invasion may be further controlled through the adjunctive use of antibiotics administered into the sub-eschar space. Once eschar separation has exposed healthy granulation tissue, the burn wound must be covered with suitable biologic dressings prior to autografting. All open wounds may then be autografted with sheet grafts to the face, neck, and areas exposed to trauma or by expansion mesh grafts to cover large areas from limited donor sites. Upon completion of autografting, a vigorous physical therapy program is necessary to rehabilitate victims of massive thermal injury to a functional existence.