Nutritional indicators of postburn bacteremic sepsis.

The potential of nutritional assessment parameters in predicting sepsis in burn patients was investigated. Sixty-two consecutive patients (mean age 41 years) with an average burn size of 19% were studied. Values were obtained on postburn day 10 for serum albumin, transferrin, nitrogen balance, total lymphocyte count, skin test reactivity, and percentage of ideal body weight. Parameters predictive of imminent septic episode included serum albumin less than 3.0 g/dl (p less than 0.001), total lymphocyte count less than 1500/mm3 (p less than 0.001), anergy (p less than 0.001), and serum transferrin less than 150 mg/dl (p less than 0.001). Nitrogen balance and percentage of ideal body weight were not found to contribute to group discrimination.