New research on “Burn Fluid Resuscitation Support System”

Water is the most important thing and duties of life cannot be discharged without water.  Thiruvalluvar in his Thirukural says

“ When water fails – function of nature cease”   Humans can survive for some weeks without food, but not many days without water.  Body has the ability to physiologically regulate its inner environment to ensure its stability in response to fluctuations in the outside environment and weather.  Fluid balance is a concept that the amount of fluid lost from the body needs to be supplemented.  ‘Euvolemia’ is the presence of proper amount of blood in the body.

In the United States,    the Army has named 10 winners to its greatest inventions at the Army Science Conference and amongst the winning entries is the one on  “Burn Fluid Resuscitation Support System”.  It is described as  “  a  system,  a computer application for assisting medical providers with resuscitating severe burn victims.  The system reduces fluid requirements across all phases of resuscitation, as well as lowering infusion volumes normalized to body weight and burn size. Finally the system sends expertise to the deployed environment by allowing non-burn providers to resuscitate burn victims without an expert bedside. (source  http://www.globalsecurity.org/)

A burn is a type of injury to flesh caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation or friction. Generally,  burns  affect the skin (epidermal tissue and dermis). Sometimes they could damage  tissues of muscle, bone.  There could be injuries to blood vessels  even.  Burns are often painful, can result in disfiguring and leave scar marks.   Further there could be complications of shock, infection, loss of fluid and respiratory distress.   Large burns can be fatal.   Burns are generally known by their degrees.   First-degree burns are usually limited to redness ( and involve only the skin.   Third-degree burns occur when the epidermis is lost with damage to the subcutaneous tissue.  The worst is when heat destroys muscles, charring and exposes the bone.  These could be fatal.  Scalding is caused by hot liquids (water or oil) or gases (steam), most commonly occurring from exposure to high temperature tap water in baths or showers or spilled hot drinks.

The biggest problem arising out of burn injury is severe fluid loss.  Effective fluid resuscitation is one of the cornerstones of modern burn treatment.  Appropriate fluid management of major burns directly improves the survival rates of burn patients.   This technique is the medical practice of replenishing body fluid lost through sweating, bleeding, fluid shifts of other pathological process.  The replacements can be through oral administration, intravenous administration, rectally, or  by  direct injection of fluid into the subcutaneous tissue.

Over the years, advances in resuscitation  has  expanded  and the present researches will go a long way in proving to be a boon to the humanity, especially to soldiers who are exposed to this type of injuries.  Apart from being militarily powerful, US has good military and scientific research facilities and perhaps new inventions would in some way help the  humanity at large.

Regards – Sampathkumar S