510 A Case-controlled Retrospective Review of Fluid Resuscitation in Patients with Concomitant Burn and Trauma Injuries

Introduction Aggressive fluid resuscitation with crystalloid has been a mainstay of therapy in burn injuries for over 50 years. However, in trauma populations there has been a shift away from crystalloid based resuscitation and the early administration of blood products has been recommended. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate if large-volume crystalloid resuscitation of patients presenting with both burn and trauma injuries is associated with higher mortality and complications. Methods This was a matched case-controlled retrospective chart review of patients treated over a 5-year period that suffered mixed burn and trauma injuries (MI). Patients that suffered burn only injuries (BO) were used as the control and were matched on TBSA, age, and gender. All patients were resuscitated using the standard burn center resuscitation protocol. Results A total of 4,416 patients were admitted to the burn center during the study period. Of those 18 had concomitant burn and trauma injuries requiring burn fluid resuscitation and were successfully matched to BO patients. There was no difference in age, gender, ethnicity, % TBSA burned, presence of inhalation injury, or Injury Severity Score (ISS). BO patients were more likely to have flame/flash as the etiology of burn injury (p=.0257). With fluid resuscitation, there was no difference in the total volume of fluid administered, or the amount of crystalloid or colloid administered. MI patients were more likely to have received blood products than BO patients (472 ml vs 19 ml, p=.0387). There was no difference in the following outcome measures: mortality, ICU days, ventilator days, number of surgeries, infections, or major complications. The only significant outcome difference was that the BO patients had a greater hospital length of stay (44 days) than the MI patients (24 days, p < 0.001). Conclusions Aggressive fluid resuscitation using existing burn resuscitation protocols did not result in greater complications in burn-trauma patients than in burn only patients. Crystalloid-based burn resuscitation is safe in patients with combined burn and trauma injuries.

A case report of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus mitis in a healthy adult

Background Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) is an acute, multisystem and toxin-mediated disease that usually causes shock and multiple organ failure in the early stages of its clinical course. It is associated with a substantial increase in mortality rate. The disease has been associated with invasive group A Streptococcus and is rarely caused by Streptococcus mitis (S. mitis). In healthy adults, S. mitis is closely related to endocarditis but rarely related to STSS. Case presentation We report a case of STSS caused by S. mitis in a healthy 45-year-old woman. She presented with fever 14 h after surgery and with hypotension 24 h later, and she subsequently suffered from septic shock, low albumin, dysfunction of coagulation, acute kidney dysfunction, respiratory alkalosis and metabolic acidosis, acute respiratory distress syndrome and cellulitis of the incision. The diagnosis was obtained through clinical manifestation and blood culture examination. The patient was treated with aggressive fluid resuscitation, adequate antibiotics for a total of 4 weeks, respiratory support, and surgical debridement and drainage of the incision. She was discharged after her vital signs returned to normal and the incision healed on day 40 after surgery. Conclusions The diagnosis of STSS is often delayed or missed, which leads to a high mortality rate. It is possible to cure patients if the disease can be identified early and treated with aggressive fluid resuscitation, adequate antibiotics and control of the source of infection. Clinicians should consider the disease in the differential diagnosis of septic shock to prevent death.

Left orbital compartment syndrome and right anterior ischemic optic neuropathy in a patient with severe burns despite non-aggressive fluid resuscitation

Introduction: Ophthalmological complications such as orbital compartment syndrome (OCS) and ischemic optic neuropathy are rare complications in patients with burns and have been described in patients where aggressive fluid resuscitation was performed. While OCS requires urgent surgical intervention, no current treatment is established to treat, or prevent, ischemic optic neuropathy in patients with burns. Methods: The authors report a case of a 38-year-old woman with flame burns including the periorbital regions who developed OCS on the left side and anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) on the right side despite non-aggressive fluid resuscitation. Immediate lateral canthotomy combined with inferior cantholysis was performed on the left side. Discussion and Conclusion: OCS and AION need to be considered as potential complications even in critically ill patients with facial burns who do not receive aggressive fluid resuscitation. Whether an early surgical intervention will lower the risk of AION development is, however, speculative. Lay Summary Ophthalmological complications such as orbital compartment syndrome and ischemic optic neuropathy are rare complications in patients with burns and have been described in patients where aggressive fluid resuscitation was performed. We present a case of a critically ill patient with severe facial burns who developed orbital compartment syndrome on the left side and anterior ischemic optic neuropathy on the right side even though our patient did not receive aggressive fluid resuscitation. Our case is particular because both of these rare complications are seen in a single patient and neither received aggressive fluid resuscitation. The fact that the patient did not develop ischemic optic neuropathy on the side where the lateral canthotomy was performed (only on the side where the patient had orbital compartment syndrome), this case might raise the discussion of whether an early surgical intervention might lower the risk of ischemic optic neuropathy development in patients with facial burns.

Management of Dengue in Children: An Update

Dengue viruses cause symptomatic infections or asymptomatic seroconversion. Symptomatic dengue infection is a systemic and dynamic disease. It has a wide clinical spectrum that includes both severe and non-severe clinical manifestations. Due to its dynamic nature, the severity of the disease will usually only be apparent around defervescence which often coincides with the onset of the critical phase. For a disease that is complex in its manifestations, management is relatively simple, inexpensive and very effective in saving lives, so long as correct and timely interventions are instituted. The main hemodynamic elements of dengue shock is hypovolemia with decreased vascular capacitance resulting from plasma leakage. Thus, the strategy of aggressive fluid resuscitation of septic shock is not applicable to severe dengue with plasma leakage. Volume replacement in children with dengue shock is a challenging management problem. Aggressive fluid resuscitation may indeed be harmful and should be limited to dengue shock with hypotension. There is a “narrow therapeutic index”; therefore, fluids have to be given timely, at the appropriate volume, rate, of the appropriate type (crystalloids, colloid and/or blood) and for the appropriate duration. Therein lies the challenge to physicians who are not familiar with the important practice of fluid titration through frequent and meticulous assessment. Progression of the disease through the critical phase should be tracked in hours of plasma leakage. Recognizing the cues to discontinue intravenous fluid therapy is just as important as knowing when to start it. Given time and hemodynamic stability, other issues such as thrombocytopenia, coagulopathy and raised liver enzymes will recover spontaneously or with supportive care. DS (Child) H J 2019; 35(2) : 162-178

Peroxynitrite decomposition catalyst reduces vasopressin requirement in ovine MRSA sepsis

Background Sepsis is one of the most frequent causes of death in the intensive care unit. Host vascular hypo-responsiveness to vasopressors during septic shock is one of the challenging problems. This study tested the hypothesis that adjunct therapy with peroxynitrite decomposition catalyst (WW-85) would reduce arginine vasopressin (AVP) requirements during sepsis resuscitation, using ovine sepsis model. Methods Thirteen adult female Merino sheep, previously instrumented with multiple vascular catheters, were subjected to “two-hit” (cotton smoke inhalation and intrapulmonary instillation of live methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; 3.5 × 1011 colony-forming units) injury. Post injury, animals were awakened and randomly allocated to the following groups: (1) AVP: injured, fluid resuscitated, and titrated with AVP, n = 6 or (2) WW-85 + AVP: injured, fluid resuscitated, treated with WW-85, and titrated with AVP, n = 7. One-hour post injury, a bolus intravenous injection of WW-85 (0.1 mg/kg) was followed by a 23-h continuous infusion (0.02 mg/kg/h). Titration of AVP started at a dose of 0.01 unit/min, when mean arterial pressure (MAP) decreased by 10 mmHg from baseline, despite aggressive fluid resuscitation, and the rate was further adjusted to maintain MAP. After the injury, all animals were placed on a mechanical ventilator and monitored in the conscious state for 24 h. Results The injury induced severe hypotension refractory to aggressive fluid resuscitation. High doses of AVP were required to partially attenuate the sepsis-induced hypotension. However, the cumulative AVP requirement was significantly reduced by adjunct treatment with WW-85 at 17–24 h after the injury (p < 0.05). Total AVP dose and the highest AVP rate were significantly lower in the WW-85 + AVP group compared to the AVP group (p = 0.02 and 0.04, respectively). Treatment with WW-85 had no adverse effects. In addition, the in vitro effects of AVP on isolated artery diameter changes were abolished with peroxynitrite co-incubation. Conclusions The modulation of reactive nitrogen species, such as peroxynitrite, may be considered as a novel adjunct treatment option for septic shock associated with vascular hypo-responsiveness to vasopressors.