Critical care polyneuropathy in burn injuries: An integrative review.

Polyneuropathy is a debilitating condition which may be associated with large burns. The aim of this integrative review is to identify factors that contribute to the development of critical care polyneuropathy in patients admitted to an intensive care unit with a severe burn injury. PubMed, Scopus, CINHAL and EMBASE were searched up until July 2016. Studies/case reports focusing on critical care polyneuropathy for burn injured patients were included. The ten studies, included a total of 2755 burns subjects and identified 128 critical care polyneuropathy patients with an incidence of 4.4%. Three case reports identified prolonged ventilation and development of critical care neuropathy. Overall, factors identified as contributing to the development of critical care polyneuropathy in burn injured patients included prolonged ventilation (>7 days), large and deep total body surface area burns (mean TBSA 40%), and sepsis. Critical care polyneuropathy in burn patients remains challenging to diagnose and treat. To date, there is a lack of long term studies describing the impact of critical care polyneuropathy on functional performance or participation in activities of daily living in the burns population and this is consistent with the general literature addressing the lack of follow up assessments and long term consequences of persistent muscle weakness.

Burns in Israel, comparative study: Demographic, etiologic and clinical trends 1997-2003 vs. 2004-2010.

OBJECTIVES: To review hospitalised burn patients from 2004 to 2010 admitted to Israeli burn units and compare these result with data from 1997 to 2003. METHODS: Retrospectively, data was collected from the Israeli Trauma Registry (ITR) encompassing all burn admissions to Israeli burn units from 2004-2010 and compared to 1997-2003. RESULTS: Of the 5269 burn patients admitted from 2004 to 2010, 39.8% were non-Jewish. Infants under two years were the prominent age group (24.1%). Second to third degree burns 1-9% TBSA/first degree burns were 71%, second to third degree burns 10-19% TBSA were 16% and those 20%>TBSA consisted of 13%. Only 2.7% involved an inhalation injury. The average length of stay was 11.67 days and mortality rate 3.72%. All data was compared to the previous year's 1997-2003 and trends were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Within Israel, high risk populations remain infants under two years of age, males and those from non-Jewish populations. National prevention strategies and campaigns are warranted to inform and educated parents of young children and those at risk of burns. Of note, advances in burn care and procedures might have contributed to a decrease in the length of hospital stay (LOS).