Use of burn wound biopsies in the diagnosis and treatment of burn wound infection

Improvements in both general care and wound care have favorably influenced the outcome of burn patients. Principal among these improvements have been the use of effective topical antimicrobial chemotherapy and the early postburn removal of ischemic nonviable burned tissue by excision, which have reduced the incidence of invasive burn wound infection as a cause of death [6]. Even so, current burn wound care is imperfect and certain patients, usually those with extensive burns that involve more than 50 % of the total body surface (particularly children and the elderly), escape from microbial control and develop invasive burn wound infection [10].