SURGICAL PREVENTION OF POSTTRAUMATIC SEPS IS BY IMMEDIATE NECRECTOMY OF BURN WOUNDS

Sepsis is the commonest cause of death following burn injuries. The ma in source of the bacteria which cause the onset of sepsis is the burn wound itself. We evaluated the question of whether immediate necrectom y versus early nectrectomy leads to a decrease in septic complications , as well as posttraumatic lethality. We evaluated 66 patients, 33 of whom underwent immediate necrectomy (i.e., within the first 3 days pos ttraumatically, group 1); the remaining 33 patients underwent necrecto my in the early posttraumatic phase (from the fourth posttraumatic day , group 2). Following immediate necrectomy (group 1), septic complicat ions developed in 12.1%, as compared to 33.3% in group 2 (p < 0.01). L ethality was significantly reduced in group 1 with 9.1% compared to 21 .2% in group 2 (p < 0.01). In this study it was demonstrated that imme diate necrectomy versus early necrectomy in young patients leads to a significant decrease of septic complications and lethality following b urn injury.