ABSTRACT
The rate of survival in burn patients has improved considerably in the past few decades. As a result of continuous development in the treatment of burns, the LD50 (the burn size lethal to 50% of the population) for thermal injuries has risen from 42% body surface area (BSA) during the 1940s and 1950s to more than 90% BSA for young thermally injured patients.1 This can be attributed to advances in resuscitation, nutritional support, pulmonary care, wound care, and infection control.2 Sepsis is the leading cause of death in patients with large burns.3,4 Seventy-five percent of all deaths after burn injury are related to infection. Ninety-one percent of patients dying with burn wound sepsis have positive bacterial or fungal cultures.5
