الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Burn injury, unlike other traumas, can be quantified as to the exact percentage of body injured, and can be viewed as a paradigm of injury from which many lessons can be learned about critical illness involving multiple organ systems.
The magnitude of the problem in the developing countries is a colossal challenge. In the low and middle income countries of the African region the incidence rate of fatal burn injury for the age group younger than 20 years is 8.7/100.000 in comparison to Americas region it was only 0.7/100.000 by 2007 in the US there were 597 fatal burn injuries under the age of 20 years representing 3.5% of all fatal injuries.
Burns are caused by a variety of external sources classified as thermal (heat-related), chemical, electrical, and radiation, most of which occurs accidently at home or at work with 2% due to assault by another, and 1-2% resulting from a suicide attempt.
At temperatures greater than 44 °C (111 °F), proteins begin losing their three-dimensional shape and start breaking down causing tissue damage. Many of the direct pathophysiological effects of a burn are secondary to disruption in the normal functioning of the skin, like inability to prevent water loss through evaporation, and ability to control body temperature as well as vulnerability to infection.
The extent of the burn surface area involved is determined by careful observation, and should be graphically represented to aid in diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and epidemiological surveillance. Burn wound depth is a significant determinant of patient treatment and morbidity, although bedside evaluation remains the most common modality of diagnosing the depth of burn wounds, recent technological advances have broadened the scope of depth assessment modalities available to clinicians.
Proper initial management is critical for the survival and good outcome of the victim of minor and major thermal trauma. Resuscitation begins with the assessment and stabilization of the person’s airway, breathing and circulation. Also early cooling (within 30 minutes of the burn) reduces burn depth and pain, but care must be taken as over-cooling can result in hypothermia. However, even though burn injuries are frequent in our society, many surgeons feel uncomfortable in managing patients with major thermal trauma.
Tremendous advances in burns care and management have occurred over the past 50 years, much of this, but not all can be attributed to basic science and clinically related research results in impressive outcomes not only in terms of survival but also in terms of a quality of survival, these advances are based on improvement and adjustment of resuscitation therapy, improvement of infection control, metabolism and nutrition of burn patient, temporary skin substitutes, cultured epithelial autograft (CEA), Stem cell therapy which is a novel & futuristic treatment modality, use of amniotic membrane dressing, all these aims to produce less severe contractures and better aesthetic results and also leads to decreased incidences of infections and sepsis.
Such recent advances aim towards decreasing the hospital stays, lowering mortality and morbidity, and decrease the suffering of burn victims as well as improving not only survival but also quality of survival of burn patients in order to be useful for themselves, their families and the society not a burden on it.