Warm Dry Air Treatment of 345 Patients with Burns Exceeding 20 Per Cent of the Body Surface

Abstract

Two groups of patients with burns covering more than 20% of the body surface treated in a warm dry environment in two Burn Units in Sweden have been compared. The methods of treatment of the 345 patients were almost identical, using plasma and crystalloid solutions during the period of early intense therapy, use of frequent bathing and early debridement of the necrotic burned tissue and application of homo- or heterograft skin prior to the transplantation of autograft skin. The percentage mortalities in the two groups of patients (15.7% and 20.2%) were not significantly different, neither were the causes of the burn or the cause of death. Combination of the results and probit analysis did however show that treatment in a warm dry environment was associated with a lower rate of mortality in patients with very extensive burns than found in other studies not using these environmental conditions in Sweden prior to 1968 (by the same authors) in the United Kingdom and in the United States of America.