Pathophysiologic difference between frostbite and burn injury and implications for therapy

摘要

In the United States between 2000 and 2009, approximately 450,000 burn injuries required medical treatment; of these, 45,000 required hospi-talization and 25,000 of these injuries presented at hospitals with a specialized burn unit [1]. These injuries include thermal burns as a result of fires, scalding water, contact with hot objects, chemical exposure, and electricity. While burn centers were established to treat such injuries, frostbite, more recently, has become a frequent condition referred to burn centers for management and therapy. Frostbite, in which tissue damage occurs as a result of exposure to below freezing temperatures, is an injury often compared with burn injury. Once considered primarily a military phenomenon, with the increasing popularity of outdoor activity, as well as studies correlating frostbite injuries with alcohol consumption, psychiatric illness, drug use, and motor vehicle accidents, the incidence of frostbite injuries in urban civilian populations has risen [2].