title: Inhalation injury: a decade without progress.
abstract: Despite major advances in the management of patients with critical burn injuries, inhalation injury continues to be a major determinant of death resulting from burn injuries. Two cohort groups of victims with burn and inhalation injuries, separated by a decade, were retrospectively reviewed in an effort to determine the impact of newer treatment modalities. Patients were categorized as being at "high" or "low" risk on the basis of primary and secondary diagnostic criteria. Despite a statistically significant decrease in the percent of total body surface injury, no change in mortality rate was noted between the two groups. The advent of sophisticated diagnostic and management techniques does not appear to have decreased the mortality rate associated with inhalation injury.
authors.affiliation: Burn Trauma Center, Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh.
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Sobel
authors.forename: I W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Goldfarb
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Slater
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Hammell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002053:Burn Units; D002059:Burns, Inhalation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012121:Respiration, Artificial; D012189:Retrospective Studies