Armed conflict and burn injuries: a brief review*.

Burns and fire disasters are sad but common and obligatory components of armed conflicts, and with the increasing sophistication of weaponry and of chemical and nuclear devices the problem is not set to disappear; on the contrary. Indeed, with the (fortunate) decrease of major international wars but with the (unfortunate) increase of smaller ethnic and sectarian but equally treacherous conflicts, burns are bound to remain a constant problem. Yet the profession is ill prepared for such dark challenges.