The time-course of the inflammatory response to major burn injury and its relation to organ failure and outcome

Abstract

Burn injury causes major inflammatory activation and cytokine release, however, the temporal resolution of the acute and sub-acute inflammatory response has not yet been fully delineated. To this end, we have quantified 20 inflammatory mediators in plasma from 44 adult patients 0-21 days after burn injury and related the time course of these mediators to % total body surface area (TBSA) burned, clinical parameters, organ failure and outcome. Of the cytokines analyzed in these patients, interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-8, IL-10 and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) correlated to the size of the injury at 24-48h after burn injury. In our study, the concentration of IL-10 had prognostic value in patients with burn injury both measured at admission and at 24-48h after injury. However, simple demographic data such as age, % burned TBSA, inhalation injury and their combination, the Baux score and modified Baux score, outperform most of the cytokines, with the exception of IL-8 and MCP-1 levels on admission, in predicting death.

Keywords: Burns; Cytokines; Mortality; Multiple organ failure; Severity of illness index.