Pharmacologic Management of Pediatric Burns

Many pediatric patients with burn injuries may be initially treated in a hospital where pediatric specialized care, including resources and trained personnel may be limited. This includes resuscitation in adult emergency departments and inpatient care in mixed adult-pediatric burn units. The intent of this review is to provide a compilation of topics for the adult trained pharmacist or another healthcare practitioner on the management of pediatric patients with burn injuries. This article focuses on several key areas of pharmacologic burn management in the pediatric patient that may differ from the adult patient, including pain and sedation, fluid resuscitation, nutrition support, antimicrobial selection, anticoagulation, and inhalation injury. It is important that all clinicians have resources to help optimize the management of burn injuries in the pediatric population as, in addition to burn injury itself, pediatric patients have different pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics affecting which medications are used and how they are dosed. This article highlights several key differences between pediatric and adult patients, providing an additional resource to assist adult-trained pharmacists or other healthcare practitioners with making clinical decisions in the pediatric burn population.