Nutrition, anabolism, and the wound healing process: an overview.

Objective: To develop a clear, concise, and up-to-date treatise on the role of anabolism from nutrition in wound healing. Special emphasis was to be placed on the effect of the stress response to wounding and its effect.

Methods: A compilation of both the most important and most recent reports in the literature was used to also develop the review.

Burns: what are the pharmacological treatment options?

Background: Many advances have been made in the understanding and management of burn injury, dramatically increasing pharmacological decision options for burn care professionals. Since burn injury is so multi-faceted, these advances cross many injury processes, both acute and chronic.

Objective: The purpose of this review was to highlight the advances and decision options across the entire scope of the burn injury process.

Smoke inhalation lung injury: an update.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to present a multifaceted, definitive review of the past and current status of smoke inhalation injury. History along with current understanding of anatomical, physiology, and biologic components will be discussed.

Methods: The literature has been reviewed from the early onset of the concept of smoke inhalation in the 1920s to our current understanding as of 2007.

The increasing problem of wound bacterial burden and infection in acute and chronic soft-tissue wounds caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Unlabelled: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a leading cause of colonization and infection in both acute and chronic soft-tissue wounds.

Objective: Our objective is to define this current epidemic problem caused by both community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) and hospital-acquired MRSA (HA-MRSA), focusing on the similarities and differences between these 2 isolates as well as the impact on wound management decisions.

Methods: Methods used include a literature review on the growth of the current MRSA problem and its International scope.

The use of anabolic agents in catabolic states.

Objective: We plan to review the current problem of lean mass erosion in catabolic states, caused by injury and critical illness. This protein loss is driven by the hormonal imbalance and excess inflammation referred to as the "stress response to injury." We then plan to provide the current concepts on the use of available anabolic agents to attenuate the excess catabolism.