Question

major burn injuries need to be taken seriously not only for the cosmetic reasons, but also because this type of injury can lead to shock and even death. how does a burn injury affect the capillaries, in turn leading to shock?

Answer 1

Burn wounds differ from other wounds. Other wounds can specifically affect a single organ but extensive burns primarily involve a single organ; however, almost all systems of the body are affected in this disease making it a generalized disorder.

As it is known, whenever anything is heated it tends to expand. Same principle is applied to capillaries when there is a burn. There is a generalized increase in capillary permeability due to heat. This increased permeability leads to plasma leakage into interstitial spaces. The plasma loss is the root cause of hypovolaemic shock in burns. The amount of fluid loss is depended on the extent of burns. The plasma loss also causes thrombosis and RBCs are lost in thrombosed blood vessels in the burned skin. The life span of RBCs in circulation is also reduced due to the direct effect of heat and they are hemolysed early. Extensive burn also causes bone marrow depression leading to anemia.

The major cause of death in burn wounds happens because of sepsis. In the chronic stage of burns, blood loss from wound, and infection are responsible for anemia. Burn wounds are usually considered sterile at the time of injury because of heat killing all the micro-organisms on the surface. But after the first week of burns, these surface wounds get infected, ts and making burn wound sepsis one of the major cause of death due to burns.