Care of Geriatric Patients

Burn injury is a serious hazard to the geriatric population. Despite general advances in burn care, morbidity and mortality remain high among geriatric patients. Overall, the general burn treatment approaches remain the same as in younger patient populations, but special attention needs to be paid to various age-specific risk factors and comorbidities. Early excision of burn wounds, prompt grafting, perioperative optimization, and strong rehabilitation efforts starting as soon as possible after injury are the backbone of interdisciplinary therapy. The hypermetabolic, hypercatabolic, and proinflammatory state that elderly patients experience after burn, although the same in principle, differs from the reaction seen in younger patients and poses additional challenges in perioperative management. This systemic reaction of increased energy expenditure, loss of muscle mass, increased lipolysis, inefficient cardiac work, reduced immune function, and pyrexia can be mitigated with various therapeutic agents. Nonetheless, the specific care for the growing number of aging burn patients is the subject of ongoing research.