Outcome measures in burn care. Is mortality dead?

Health care systems constantly struggle with ways to provide higher quality care in a cost-effective manner. Outcome measures serve to evaluate what works and what does not. Whether they are used for research or for the improvement of clinical practice, they are as such, efficiency markers and the first step in determining the consequences of health care. The accomplishments of the past decade have placed us in the midst of an exciting paradigm shift from what used to be primary concern (i.e. mortality), to areas that are more likely to enhance the quality of life of burn survivors. Optimal management of severely burned persons is enormously expensive, and even after survival is ensured, may require a protracted period of surgical, medical and psychological rehabilitative measures for many years. This article aims to review the outcome measures in the acute phase of burn management (mortality and morbidity from the post-burn hypermetabolic response). We further discuss long-term outcome measures (such as, quality of life measures, exercise tolerance and evaluation of return to pre-burn activities) that are now becoming of equal importance as the numbers of burn survivors increase.