Continuous peripheral nerve blocks for burn management: a retrospective study of outcomes and complications in 281 burn patients.

Background: There is scarce literature regarding the use of continuous peripheral nerve blocks in acute burn patients, who may be at higher risk for catheter-related complications, including infection. We sought to describe our center's experience and infection rate with continuous perineural catheters in the setting of pain management for patients suffering from burns.

Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed including all patients admitted to an American Burn Association-verified regional burn center between January 2018 and July 2023 who received a continuous peripheral nerve block for an acute burn injury.

Friction Burns: Defining the Rub of Road Rash After Motorcycle Trauma.

There is a paucity of literature on friction burn epidemiology, injury characteristics, and management after trauma. This study aims to characterize friction burns resulting from motorcycle accidents, evaluate the role of specialized burn surgery teams, and assess the need for operative intervention. The trauma registry of a Level 1 Trauma Center was queried for all admissions after motorcycle accidents between January 2018 and December 2022.

The Scalding Truth: Geospatial Analysis Identifies Communities at Risk for Pediatric Scald Burns.

Introduction: Pediatric scald burns account for 12% of all U.S. burn center admissions and are the most common type of burn in children.

Cross-Border Antibiotic Resistance Patterns in Burn Patients.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing problem worldwide, with differences in regional resistance patterns partially driven by local variance in antibiotic stewardship. Trauma patients transferring from Mexico have more AMR than those injured in the United States; we hypothesized a similar pattern would be present for burn patients. The registry of an American Burn Association (ABA)-verified burn center was queried for all admissions for burn injury January 2015 through December 2019 with hospital length-of-stay (LOS) longer than seven days.

Ultrasound-Guided Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Cryoneurolysis for Analgesia in Patients With Burns.

Autologous skin grafting from the thigh is frequently required for treatment of burns and is associated with intense pain at the donor site. Local anesthetic-based (LA) nerve blocks of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) have been demonstrated to provide analgesia when the graft is taken from the lateral thigh. However, the duration of these single injection blocks has been reported to average only 9 hours, whereas the pain from the procedure lasts days or weeks.

Anti-Xa guided enoxaparin dose adjustment improves pharmacologic deep venous thrombosis prophylaxis in burn patients.

Introduction: Patients recovering from burn injury are at high risk of developing deep venous thrombosis (DVT). While 30-mg twice-daily enoxaparin is accepted as the standard prophylactic dose, recent evidence in injured patients suggests this dosing strategy may result in sub-optimal pharmacologic DVT prophylaxis. We hypothesized that standard enoxaparin dosing would result in inadequate DVT prophylaxis in burn patients.

The Unrecognized Epidemic of Electronic Cigarette Burns.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are novel battery-operated devices that deliver nicotine as an inhaled aerosol. They originated from China in 2007 and their use has rapidly increased worldwide in the past decade, yet they remain largely unregulated. Reports of injuries associated with their use have appeared as unusual events in the news media and as case reports in the medical literature.

Monitoring Neutrophil-Expressed Cell Surface Esophageal Cancer Related Gene-4 after Severe Burn Injury.

Background: We identified recently esophageal cancer related gene-4 (ECRG4) as a candidate cytokine that is expressed on the surface of quiescent polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) and shed in response to ex vivo treatment with lipopolysaccharide. To investigate the potential biologic relevance of changes in cell surface ECRG4 in human samples, we performed a pilot study to examine a population of burn patients in whom blood could be analyzed prospectively. We hypothesized that cutaneous burn injury would alter cell surface expression of ECRG4 on PMNs.

Combat versus civilian open tibia fractures: the effect of blast mechanism on limb salvage.

Background: This study compares open tibia fractures in US Navy and US Marine Corps casualties from the current conflicts with those from a civilian Level I trauma center to analyze the effect of blast mechanism on limb-salvage rates.

Methods: Data from the 28,646 records in the University of California San Diego Trauma Registry from 1985 to 2006 was compared with 2,282 records from the US Navy and US Marine Corps Combat Trauma Registry Expeditionary Medical Encounter Database for the period of March 2004 to August 2007. Injuries were categorized by Gustilo-Anderson (G-A) open fracture classification.

Beach and campfire burns: a site of pleasure and tragedy.

Seasonal use of campground bonfires and beach fire pits is a common practice. A sense of fellowship is derived from this experience. Unfortunately, many people are injured by these fires.

Hemorrhage is More Prevalent than Brain Injury in Early Trauma Deaths: The Golden Six Hours.

Introduction: Under the trimodal distribution, most trauma deaths occur within the first hour. Determination of cause of death without autopsy review is inaccurate. The goal of this study is to determine cause of death, in hourly intervals, in trauma patients who died in the first 24 h, as determined by autopsy.