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Chapter 40 - Burns in Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2025

James Ip
Affiliation:
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
Grant Stuart
Affiliation:
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
Isabeau Walker
Affiliation:
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
Ian James
Affiliation:
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
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Summary

Burns are a common injury throughout the world and are mostly preventable. A moment of inattention by a guardian or an older child playing with fire can lead to a lifetime of burn care. Children have a higher incidence of burns than adults, although most burns are small. Burns over 10% require formal fluid resuscitation to mitigate the effects of systemic oedema and burn shock. Definitive treatment involves non-operative techniques, such as application of dressings, or for larger or deeper injuries, operations to debride the wound and apply skin grafts. Each burn generates background, breakthrough and procedural pain that must be managed effectively. Small burns may be complicated by infection, larger burns by multiple organ failure. The outcomes are generally good, and children can survive and thrive even after very large injuries. Anaesthetists are involved in all aspects of burn care once a child reaches hospital, and they are an essential part of the multidisciplinary burn care team. The aim of this team is to deliver faster healing and better pain control, and to prevent complications. This chapter describes current burns care for children in the United Kingdom.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

Desai, MH, Mlcak, R, Richardson, J, Nichols, R, Herndon, DN. Reduction in mortality in pediatric patients with inhalation injury with aerosolized heparin/N-acetylcystine [correction of acetylcystine] therapy. Journal of Burn Care Rehabilitation 1998; 19:210–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goutos, I, Eldardiri, M, Khan, AA, Dziewulski, P, Richardson, PM. Comparative evaluation of antipruritic protocols in acute burns: the emerging value of gabapentin in the treatment of burns pruritus. Journal of Burn Care and Research 2010; 31:5763. https://doi.org/10.1097/BCR.0b013e3181cb8ecf.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jeschke, MG, van Baar, ME, Choudhry, MA et al. Burn injuryNational Review Disease Primers 2020; 6:11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572–020-0145-5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Palmieri, TL, Holmes, JH 4th, Arnoldo, B et al. Transfusion Requirement in Burn Care Evaluation (TRIBE): a multicenter randomized prospective trial of blood transfusion in major burn injury. Annals of Surgery 2017; 266:595602. Available online: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5848498/. Accessed 13 April 2024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pardesi, O, Fuzaylov, G. Pain management in pediatric burn patients: review of recent literature and future directions. Journal of Burn Care and Research 2017; 38:335–47. https://doi.org/10.1097/BCR.0000000000000470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Royal Collage of Paediatricians and Child Health. Child Protection Evidence. Systematic Review on Burns. 2017 July. Available online: https://childprotection.rcpch.ac.uk/child-protection-evidence/burns-systematic-review. Accessed 30 April 2024.Google Scholar

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  • Burns in Children
  • Edited by James Ip, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Grant Stuart, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Isabeau Walker, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Ian James, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
  • Book: Core Topics in Paediatric Anaesthesia
  • Online publication: 06 February 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955409.041
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  • Burns in Children
  • Edited by James Ip, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Grant Stuart, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Isabeau Walker, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Ian James, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
  • Book: Core Topics in Paediatric Anaesthesia
  • Online publication: 06 February 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955409.041
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Burns in Children
  • Edited by James Ip, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Grant Stuart, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Isabeau Walker, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, Ian James, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
  • Book: Core Topics in Paediatric Anaesthesia
  • Online publication: 06 February 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955409.041
Available formats
×