The combined burn and trauma unit: ten years later

In a 275-bed university hospital, a combined Burn and Trauma Unit was developed. After 10 years of experience, an attempt was made to evaluate success. The 17-bed modular-style unit admitted 3,585 patients of whom 1,000 were burned. The average daily census was 13.0 patients, but fluctuations were great. Among the 2,291 operations for trauma, were a wide variety of abdominal (591), thoracic (122), vascular (87), and combined (23) procedures. In addition, there were 1,241 operations on burned patients. For trauma training, one fourth-year surgery resident spends 4 months; one second-year orthopedic resident spends 3 months; and one senior medical student spends 4 to 6 weeks on the service. Responses to a questionnaire were returned from 93% of the surgery residents (25/27), 80% of the orthopaedic residents (28/35), and 69% of the former students (60/87). The survey sought information on eventual careers, current trauma activities, and publications in trauma, plus retrospective evaluation of the experience. The data support the positive impact of this service as an educational activity. Besides training for residents and students, nurses and technicians are able to rotate between burned and trauma patients and keep up to date on both areas of patient care. Interest is maintained and encouraged in both clinical and experimental research as well.