Hyperdynamic resuscitation improves survival in patients with life-threatening burns.

Our clinical experience has led to the conclusion, shared by others, that standard vital signs produce inadequate data for the resuscitation of severe burns. We reviewed three groups of burn patients including an index group (N = 53) whose resuscitation was guided by means of a pulmonary artery catheter, a control group (N = 33) collected from the burn registry for the period just before the index group, and a current group (N = 30) resuscitated with hyperdynamic end points defined empirically from surviving patients as guidelines. The mortality rate and organ failures decreased over time; the mortality rate of the control group was 48%, the index group 32%, and the protocol group 10% (p = 0.003). We concluded that hyperdynamic resuscitation does improve survival and reduces the incidence of organ failure.