Objective Estimates of the Probability of Death from Burn Injuries

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 338; no. 6; pp. 362 - 366
• Main Authors: Ryan, Colleen M, Schoenfeld, David A, Thorpe, William P, Sheridan, Robert L, Cassem, Edwin H, Tompkins, Ronald G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 05-02-1998
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Burns; Burns - classification; Burns - mortality; Burns, Inhalation - mortality; Child; Child, Preschool; Emergency and intensive care: burns; Female; Humans; Infant; Intensive care medicine; Length of Stay; Logistic Models; Male; Medical research; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mortality; Mortality - trends; Probability; Prospective Studies; Resuscitation Orders; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Trauma Severity Indices; Burn; Human; Etiology; Mortality; Probability; Predictive factor; Trauma; Epidemiology; Retrospective
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199802053380604

Accurate, objective estimates of the probability of death from burn injuries would, as envisioned by Knaus et al.,
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provide clinicians with an explicit basis for clinical decisions, help them understand the relative contributions of specific prognostic criteria, and reduce reliance on clinical intuition. These estimates would also be useful to patients and to others making medical and financial decisions about their care. The most widely used formulas for the prediction of mortality from burns are based on a minimal set of easily obtained variables. A classic example
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calculated the percent likelihood of mortality as the patient's age in years plus . . .