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Burn injury...beyond the skin




  1. The burn injuries affects multiple anatomical area with major physiologic consequences....
    Below is the summary of the anatomical and physiological insults ....

     1-Supraglottal
    Loss of airway patency due to mucosal oedema
    Loss of airway reflexes due to coma (e.g. blast Traumatic brain injury, intoxications such as carbon monoxide,)
  2. Tracheobronchial
    Bronchospasm resulting from inhaled irritants
    Mucosal oedema and endobronchial sloughing causing small airway occlusion, leading to intrapulmonary shunting.
  3. Pulmonary Parenchymal
    Pulmonary (alveolar) oedema and collapse leading to decreased compliance, and further intrapulmonary shunting.
    Loss of tracheobronchial epithelium and airway ciliary clearance contributing to tracheobronchitis and pneumonia.
    Barotrauma, ARDS, pleural effusions, Ventilator associated pneumonia, TRALI and tracheobronchitis may all result from Intensive Care resuscitation, and treatments of the above.
  4. Mechanical
    Circumferential full thickness burns of the chest and abdomen may cause reduced static compliance resulting in restrictive ventilator defect, made worse by large volumes of oedema with fluid resuscitation and capillary leak.
  5. Other
    Toxic inhalation of carbon monoxide (CO) resulting in a left shift of the ODC and oxygen transport capacity (Carboxy Hb) and decreased cellular oxidative processes.
    Other toxic gases NH3, HCL – pulmonary oedema,mucosal irritation and ALI
    CN- poisoning, cellular hypoxia
    Increased metabolic requirements may overwhelm a respiratory system already impaired by all the above. 

Comments

  1. Health And Safety Training LincolnshireJanuary 4, 2014 at 1:51 AM

    Most of the times victims of burn injuries have problems in breathing, especially when there are burn injuries in the neck, face and the mouth. The first priority is to see whether the victim can breathe properly.

    Regards,
    Arnold Brame

    ReplyDelete

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