Acute treatment of severely burned pediatric patients

Over 440 000 children receive medical attention for burn injuries each year in the US [1]. Children younger than 14 years of age account for nearly half of all emergency department—treated thermal burns [2]. With approximately 1100 children dying of burn-related injuries in the United States every year [2] severe burns represent the third most common cause of death in the pediatric patient population [3] and account for a significant number of hospital admissions in the United States [2, 4]. The devastating consequences of burns have been recognized by the medical community and significant amounts of resources and research have been dedicated, successfully improving these dismal statistics: Recent reports revealed a dramatic decline in burn-related deaths and hospital admissions in the USA over the last 20 years; mainly due to effective prevention strategies, decreasing the number and severity of burns [5–7].