[Burn injury should be considered as a chronic disease]

Burn is a special type of trauma, which initiates with skin injury and subsequently causes damages to various systems of the whole body. Burn was regarded as an acute injury in the past, while burn is also considered as a disease now. In recent years, more and more recent evidences have demonstrated that burn injury has a continuous and long-term influence on the life, work, and health status of burn survivors. Therefore, we proposed that burn should be considered as a chronic disease and briefly summarized the long-term effects of burns on mortality, psychology, metabolism, immune system, cardiovascular system, and occurrence of infection and tumor in discharged burn victims. We hope this work can improve the understanding of the long-term effects of burns among medical staff, burn patients and their relatives, and social workers.