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Burn Wound Infection

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Essential Burn Care for Non-Burn Specialists

Abstract

Burn wound infections are common and early complications in patients with burn injuries with the greatest risk factors being higher total body surface area burns and delayed excision of the eschar. Clinical suspicion of wound infection is based on changes to the burn wound such as edema, erythema, pain, and purulence. The gold standard of diagnosis is culture and histology. Early infections are most commonly caused by gram-positive organisms, such as Staphylococcus aureus. With longer hospital stays, infections are more likely to be caused by gram-negative organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can harbor antibiotic resistance. Surgical debridement is the fundamental treatment of burn wound infection in combination with topical antimicrobials such as silver-based therapies and systemic antibiotics that are targeted based on the patient and/or local antibiogram susceptibilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Service, Brooke Army Medical Center, Joint Base San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston, TX, USA

    Joseph E. Marcus

  2. Department of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Kevin K. Chung

  3. Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Service, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Dana M. Blyth

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  1. Joseph E. Marcus
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  2. Kevin K. Chung
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA

    Jong O. Lee

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Marcus, J.E., Chung, K.K., Blyth, D.M. (2023). Burn Wound Infection. In: Lee, J.O. (eds) Essential Burn Care for Non-Burn Specialists. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28898-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28898-2_9

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