(NAPSI) - One of the most painful injuries that a person can ever experience is a burn injury. Every year, millions of people in the United States are burned in one way or another.A severe burn injury is the ultimate physiologic and metabolic stressor to the body. It is a complex injury affecting every body system. The body's response to a major burn is often described as the body running at three times its normal metabolic rate, even while the patient is at rest. As much as 20 percent of body protein can be lost within the first two weeks.
Nutritional treatment of pediatric burn patients must be individualized, making the role of the dietitian very important in the treatment and recovery of burn patients. There are several important reactions of the body to a burn injury that require the care of a dietitian. The metabolic, hormonal and immune responses, daily energy requirements and proper vitamin and mineral supplementation must be established for healing.
A major concern in the care of burned children is called growth faltering, or stunting of growth due to the body's responses to the injury. A limited number of studies have encouraged some clinicians and researchers to treat severely burned children with recombinant human growth hormone (rGH), which has been shown to be effective in promoting rapid wound healing and accelerating the healing of donor sites for grafting, to reverse or prevent stunting. As growth hormone therapy in burned children gained popularity it became evident that a long-term study of the actual deficit in growth was needed so that the risks and benefits of rGH therapy in preventing stunting could be evaluated.
The Boston Shriners Hospital recently completed the first large-scale retrospective study of growth and body composition in children who have been severely burned.
The study showed that, while children with severe burns had a height deficit within an approximate range of one-half to two inches over time, children in the study group who had less than a 50 percent total-body-surface-area burn were not different from the reference population, or age-related peers, who had not been burned.
The study also demonstrates the need for screening processes for identifying those children at risk for growth faltering who might benefit from continued nutritional therapy. According to Prelack, measures of total body water and its components provide information about hydration and change in metabolic activity. This method gives the clinician a meaningful tool that can be used either alone or in conjunction with other traditional methods of body composition assessment when hydration may be altered. This same method can be used during both the acute and rehabilitative phases of care to evaluate the efficacy of treatment in burned children identified as being at risk for growth deficits.
For more information on Shriners' network of 22 hospitals that provide medical care and services totally free of charge to children with orthopaedic problems, burns and spinal cord injuries, write to Shriners International Headquarters, Public Relations Dept., 2900 Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, FL 33607, or visit the Web site at www.shrinershq.org. Treatment is provided to children under age 18 without regard to race, religion or relationship to a Shriner.
If you know a child Shriners can help, call 1-800-237-5055 in the United States or 1-800-361-7256 in Canada.
Shriners Hospitals have been studying the effects of nutrition on severe burn patients.
