Severe burn cases : a tentative analysis of the epidemiological, clinical and bacteriological data

We have computerized the epidemiological, clinical and bacteriological data of 140 serious burn cases, hospitalized in our intensive care unit (I.C.U.). The most relevant conclusions are : Epidemiology : it is imperative to exert a prophylactic action against domestic burns through scalds and explosions. Clinic : the most frequent cause of death, during the phases of sept icemia, is cardiac failure. Lung burns significantly increase the mortality rate and they are impossible to codify in the classical systems of burn descriptions. Bacteriology : preventive antibiotic therapy determines, after three days, the strains which resist the usual antibiotics. An antibiotic loses some of its effect when used intensively in reanimation care. We express our concern with regard to the efficiency of antibiotic therapy in intensive care. We suggest to try and standardize data collection, so that multi-centre studies may help to increase the efficiency of their processing.