Correlation of American Burn Association sepsis criteria with the presence of bacteremia in burned patients admitted to the intensive care unit.

Severe burn injury is accompanied by a systemic inflammatory response, making traditional indicators of sepsis both insensitive and nonspecific. To address this, the American Burn Association (ABA) published diagnostic criteria in 2007 to standardize the definition of sepsis in these patients. These criteria include temperature (>39°C or <36°C), progressive tachycardia (>110 beats per minute), progressive tachypnea (>25 breaths per minute not ventilated or minute ventilation >12 L/minute ventilated), thrombocytopenia (<100,000/μl; not applied until 3 days after initial resuscitation), hyperglycemia (untreated plasma glucose >200 mg/dl, >7 units of insulin/hr intravenous drip, or >25% increase in insulin requirements over 24 hours), and feed intolerance >24 hours (abdominal distension, residuals two times the feeding rate, or diarrhea >2500 ml/day).