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. 2017 Nov;83(5):765-773.
doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000001651.

The renaissance man of burn surgery: Basil A. Pruitt, Jr

Karel D Capek  1 , Guillermo Foncerrada, R Patrick Clayton, Michaela Sljivich, Charles D Voigt, Gabriel Hundeshagen, Janos Cambiaso-Daniel, Craig Porter, Ashley Guillory, David N Herndon
Affiliations

The renaissance man of burn surgery: Basil A. Pruitt, Jr

Karel D Capek et al. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

Dr. Basil A. Pruitt Jr., a consummate clinical and translational surgeon-scientist, has spent over half a century at the forefront of an advancing standard of burn care. Commanding the US Army Institute for Surgical Research in San Antonio, he trained generations of leading burn clinicians and allied scientists. At his direction, there were forged discoveries in resuscitation from shock, treatment of inhalation injury, control of burn-related infections, prevention of iatrogenic complications, and understanding the sympathetic, endocrine, and immune responses to burn injury. Most consequentially, this team was among the first to recognize and define alterations in the basal metabolic rate and thermoregulation consequent to burn injury. These investigations prompted groundbreaking insights into the coordinated nervous, autonomic, endocrine, immune, and metabolic outflows that a severely burned patient uses to remain alive and restore homeostasis. Marking his scientific consequence, many of his reports continue to bear fruit when viewed through a contemporary lens. This article summarizes some of the major findings of his career thus far and is intended to complement a Festschrift recently held in his honor.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Leg blood flow. Taken with permission from Aulick et al. Muscle blood flow following thermal injury. Ann Surg. 1978;188(6):778. http://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/pages/default.aspx
Figure 2
Figure 2
Impaired neutrophil chemotactic index predicts early burn mortality. Taken with permission from Warden et al. Evaluation of leukocyte chemotaxis in vitro in thermally injured patients. J Clin Inves. 1974;54(4):1001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cytokine elevations after burn injury. Taken with permission from Drost et al. Plasma cytokines following thermal injury and their relationship with patient mortality, burn size, and time postburn. J Trauma. 1993;35(3):335–9.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Correlation between serum glucagon and metabolic rate. Taken with permission from Vaughan et al. Nonthyroidal control of metabolism after burn injury possible role of glucagon. Metabolism. 1985;34(7):637–41.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Correlation between urinary catecholamines and metabolic rate. Taken with permission from Wilmore et al. Catecholamines: mediator of the hypermetabolic response to thermal injury. Ann Surg. 1974;180(4):653. http://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/pages/default.aspx
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