Nutritional Therapy in Burns

Abstract

A burn is characterized by the damage to one’s body tissues caused by heat, chemicals, electricity, or radiation. The incidence of burn injuries has recently been decreasing. However, it is a fact that burns constitute a significant problem all over the world, with a few million people being affected by burns each year. A burn is an extensive trauma that affects the whole organism and determines the prognosis through its physiopathology. The case of the burn patient is also characterized by the acute phase response. Since burn patients have a non-functional skin barrier, they experience loss of liquids, minerals, proteins and electrolytes. They can also develop protein, energy and micro-nutrition deficiencies due to intense catabolic processes, infections and increased bodily needs in case of wound healing. Therefore, nutritional therapy is one of the major steps that need to be monitored from the initial moments of the burn injury through to the end of the burn treatment. This study focuses on the significance of nutritional therapy for burn patients in the light of current literature.

Keywords

• Burn
• nutrition
• metabolism