Adults with well‐healed burn injuries have lower pulmonary function values decades after injury
Abstract
Sub‐acute (e.g., inhalation injury) and/or acute insults sustained during a severe burn injury impairs pulmonary function. However, previous work has not fully characterized pulmonary function in adults with well‐healed burn injuries decades after an injury. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that adults with well‐healed burn injuries have lower pulmonary function years after recovery. Our cohort of adults with well‐healed burn‐injuries (n = 41) had a lower forced expiratory volume in one second (Burn: 93 ± 16 vs. Control: 103 ± 10%predicted, mean ± SD; d = 0.60, p = 0.04), lower maximal voluntary ventilation (Burn: 84 [71–97] vs. Control: 105 [94–122] %predicted, median [IQR]; d = 0.84, p d = 0.66, p = 0.02) than non‐burned control participants (n = 12). No variables were meaningfully influenced by having a previous inhalation injury (d ≤ 0.44, p ≥ 0.19; 13 of 41 had an inhalation injury), the size of the body surface area burned (R2 ≤ 0.06, p ≥ 0.15; range of 15%–88% body surface area burned), or the time since the burn injury (R2 ≤ 0.04, p ≥ 0.22; range of 2–50 years post‐injury). These data suggest that adults with well‐healed burn injuries have lower pulmonary function decades after injury. Therefore, future research should examine rehabilitation strategies that could improve pulmonary function among adults with well‐healed burn injuries.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.14814/phy2.15264
Entities
People
- Bryce N. Balmain
- Craig G Crandall
- Daniel P. Wilhite
- Gilbert Moralez
- Joseph C Watso
- Manall F. Jaffery
- Matthew N Cramer
- Mu Huang
- Steven A Romero
- Tony G. Babb
Organizations
- Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine
- National Institutes of Health
- United States Department of Defense
- University of North Texas
- University of Texas at Austin