Question

The Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons has established criteria for referral of a burn patient to the burn unit.  what does the  criteria includes.

Answer 1

Burn injuries that should be referred to a burn unit include

• Partial thickness burns greater than 10% total body surface area
• Burns that involve the face, hands, feet, genitalia, perineum, or major joints.
• Third degree burns in any age group.
• Electrical burns, including lightning injury.
• Chemical burns.
• Inhalation injury.
• Burn injury in patients with preexisting medical disorders that could complicate management, prolong recovery, or affect mortality.
• Any patient with burns anf concomitant trauma (such as fractures) in which the burn injury poses the greatest risk of morbidity or mortality. In such cases, if the trauma poses the greater immediate risk, the patient may be initially stabilized in a trauma center before being transferred to a burn unit. Physician judgement will be necessary in such situations and should be in concert with regional medical control plan and triage protocols.
• Burned children in hospitals without qualified personnel or equipment for the care of children.
• Burn injury in patients who will require special social, emotional, or rehabilitative intervention.