A quality improvement project incorporating preoperative warming to prevent perioperative hypothermia in major burns

Burn remains a prominent global health burden, with over 11 million burn injuries requiring medical attention annually, and is a leading cause of traumatic mortality and morbidity [1]. For full thickness and deep partial thickness burns, the widely-accepted practice, after initial critical care assessment and fluid resuscitation, is early excision and autografting [2 –11]. While outcomes are undoubtedly improved because of this approach, early aggressive debridement exposes susceptible patients to the sequelae of hypothermia in the perioperative period [12–14].

Source: Burns : Journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries - March 7, 2018 Category: Cosmetic Surgery Authors: A.D. Rogers, M. Saggaf, N. Ziolkowski Source Type: research