[Surgical prevention of post-traumatic infection by immediate necrectomy of burn wounds]

Sepsis is the commonest cause of death following burn injuries. The main source of the bacteria which cause the onset of sepsis is the burn wound itself. We evaluated the question of whether immediate necrectomy versus early necrectomy leads to a decrease in septic complications, as well as posttraumatic lethality. We evaluated 66 patients, 33 of whom underwent immediate necrectomy (i.e., within the first 3 days posttraumatically, group 1); the remaining 33 patients underwent necrectomy in the early posttraumatic phase (from the fourth posttraumatic day, group 2). Following immediate necrectomy (group 1), septic complications developed in 12.1%, as compared to 33.3% in group 2 (p < 0.01). Lathality was significantly reduced in group 1 with 9.1% compared to 21.2% in group 2 (p < 0.01). In this study it was demonstrated that immediate necrectomy versus early necrectomy in young patients leads to a significant decrease of septic complications and lethality following burn injury.