Late-Onset Acute Kidney Injury is a Poor Prognostic Sign for Severe Burn Patients

Estrogen Treatment Lowers the Risk of Complications in Menopausal Women with Mild Burn Injury

Background and Objectives: Postmenopausal women are often treated with exogenous female hormones to alleviate physical symptoms and support mental health. We posit that women treated with estrogen fare better following burn injury. Materials and Methods: De-identified patient data were obtained from TriNetX, a global healthcare research network. Adult postmenopausal women were enrolled if they were diagnosed with burn injury within 10 years after menopause onset. Patients with pre-existing abnormal uterine bleeding, gynecologic cancer, and chronic liver or heart disease were excluded. The population was grouped into those who received and those who did not receive estrogen treatment (ET) for evaluation of subsequent complications. Cohort balancing was performed using the exact match approach of Inverse Probability Treatment Weighting (IPTW). The average treatment effects (ATEs) and confidence intervals were computed for these balanced cohorts. Results: Postmenopausal women with ET had a lower risk of endometrial hyperplasia and malignancy 3 months (ATE = -0.005, -0.006) and 3 years (-0.007, -0.008) after mild burn injury (less than 20% of total body surface area) (p < 0.05), regardless of age. At the 3-month timepoint, postmenopausal women aged 45-65 with ET exhibited preventive effects against acute kidney injury (-0.0332), cerebral infarction (-0.0279), breast cancer (-0.0278) and severe sepsis (-0.011) after mild burn injury (p < 0.05) compared to women who did not receive ET. After 3 years, 45-65-year-old women with ET exhibited decreased rates of breast cancer (-0.0479) and endometrial hyperplasia (-0.0116) (p < 0.05) compared to those without ET. Conclusions: Estrogen treatment decreases the risk probabilities of breast cancer and other complications in postmenopausal women from 3 months to 3 years after mild burn injury.

Acute kidney injury in patients with burns

Burn injury is associated with a high risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) with a prevalence of AKI among patients with burns of 9-50%. Despite an improvement in burn injury survival in the past decade, AKI in patients with burns is associated with an extremely poor short-term and long-term prognosis, with a mortality of >80% among those with severe AKI. Factors that contribute to the development of AKI in patients with burns include haemodynamic alterations, burn-induced systemic inflammation and apoptosis, haemolysis, rhabdomyolysis, smoke inhalation injury, drug nephrotoxicity and sepsis. Early and late AKI after burn injury differ in their aetiologies and outcomes. Sepsis is the main driver of late AKI in patients with burns and late AKI has been associated with higher mortality than early AKI. Prevention of early AKI involves correction of hypovolaemia and avoidance of nephrotoxic drugs (for example, hydroxocobalamin), whereas prevention of late AKI involves prevention and early recognition of sepsis as well as avoidance of nephrotoxins. Treatment of AKI in patients with burns remains supportive, including prevention of fluid overload, treatment of electrolyte disturbance and use of kidney replacement therapy when indicated.

[Research advances on prognosis-related forecasting models for burn patients]

The prognosis-related forecasting model for burn patients was first proposed in 1961, and the establishment of the models not only plays an important role in assessing the severity of burns and predicting fatality rate, but also has a positive implication for improving treatment strategies of patients. The early prognosis-related forecasting models for burn patients are mainly based on factors including patients' age and burn area, and as the research goes on, the prognostic forecasting models are constantly updated and improved. There are new insights provided by an increasing number of scholars. This article summarizes the brief history of development of prognosis-related forecasting models for burn patients, the progress of some prognosis-related forecasting models for burn patients at home and abroad, and the related risk factors, with the aim of providing some references for the selection of appropriate forecasting models in clinic.

The role of mtDAMPs in the trauma-induced systemic inflammatory response syndrome

Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is a non-specific exaggerated defense response caused by infectious or non-infectious stressors such as trauma, burn, surgery, ischemia and reperfusion, and malignancy, which can eventually lead to an uncontrolled inflammatory response. In addition to the early mortality due to the "first hits" after trauma, the trauma-induced SIRS and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) are the main reasons for the poor prognosis of trauma patients as "second hits". Unlike infection-induced SIRS caused by pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), trauma-induced SIRS is mainly mediated by damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) including mitochondrial DAMPs (mtDAMPs). MtDAMPs released after trauma-induced mitochondrial injury, including mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and mitochondrial formyl peptides (mtFPs), can activate inflammatory response through multiple inflammatory signaling pathways. This review summarizes the role and mechanism of mtDAMPs in the occurrence and development of trauma-induced SIRS.

Long-Term Effects of Severe Burns on the Kidneys: Research Advances and Potential Therapeutic Approaches

Burns are a seriously underestimated form of trauma that not only damage the skin system but also cause various complications, such as acute kidney injury (AKI). Recent clinical studies have shown that the proportion of chronic kidney diseases (CKD) in burn patients after discharge is significantly higher than that in the general population, but the mechanism behind this is controversial. The traditional view is that CKD is associated with hypoperfusion, AKI, sepsis, and drugs administered in the early stages of burns. However, recent studies have shown that burns can cause long-term immune dysfunction, which is a high-risk factor for CKD. This suggests that burns affect the kidneys more than previously recognized. In other words, severe burns are not only an acute injury but also a chronic disease. Neglecting to study long-term kidney function in burn patients also results in a lack of preventive and therapeutic methods being developed. Furthermore, stem cells and their exosomes have shown excellent comprehensive therapeutic properties in the prevention and treatment of CKD, making them increasingly the focus of research attention. Their engineering strategy further improved the therapeutic performance. This review will focus on the research advances in burns on the development of CKD, illustrating the possible mechanism of burn-induced CKD and introducing potential biological treatment options and their engineering strategies.

Acute Kidney Injury: Iterative Development of an Audit Tool for Trauma Patients

BACKGROUND

Acute kidney injury is a low-volume, high-risk complication in trauma patients and is associated with prolonged hospital length of stay and increased mortality. Yet, no audit tools exist to evaluate acute kidney injury in trauma patients.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to describe the iterative development of an audit tool to evaluate acute kidney injury following trauma.

METHODS

Our performance improvement nurses developed an audit tool to evaluate acute kidney injury in trauma patients using an iterative, multiphase process conducted from 2017 to 2021, which included a review of our Trauma Quality Improvement Program data, trauma registry data, literature review, multidisciplinary consensus approach, retrospective and concurrent review, and continuous audit and feedback for piloted and finalized versions of the tool.

RESULTS

The final acute kidney injury audit tool can be completed within 30 min using data obtained from the electronic medical record and consists of six sections, including identification criteria, source potential causes, source treatment, acute kidney injury treatment, dialysis indications, and outcome status.

CONCLUSION

The iterative development and testing of an acute kidney injury audit tool improved the uniform data collection, documentation, audit, and feedback of best practices to positively impact patient outcomes.

Optimizing the timing of renal replacement therapy in burn patients with acute kidney injury

Acute kidney injury is a common complication in burn ICU patients and is associated with a high mortality rate. The optimal timing for starting renal replacement therapy (RRT) remains unknown; there is no established universal definition for early and late RRT initiation. The aims of the present narrative review are to briefly analyze the available recently published data on the timing of initiation of RRT in critically ill patients and to discuss the optimal timing of RRT in critically ill burn patients with acute kidney injury. When considering renal replacement therapy for acute kidney injury patients, physicians face the dilemma of balancing the hazards of starting too early, exposing patient to an unnecessary therapy with possible complications and costs related to treatment, and preventing a significant proportion of patients from spontaneous recovery of their renal function against the potential life-threatening harm of initiating RRT) too late. Evidence suggests that with appropriate care up to 80% of burn patients experience recovery of kidney function and the need for RRT seems to be very rare after hospital discharge. In the absence of life-threatening complications, the optimal time and thresholds for starting RRT in burn patients are uncertain. High heterogeneity exists between studies on RRT timing in burn patients.

Burn-Induced Acute Kidney Injury-Two-Lane Road: From Molecular to Clinical Aspects

Severe burn injuries lead to acute kidney injury (AKI) development, increasing the mortality risk up to 28-100%. In addition, there is an increase in hospitalization days and complications appearance. Various factors are responsible for acute or late AKI debut, like hypovolemia, important inflammatory response, excessive load of denatured proteins, sepsis, and severe organic dysfunction. The main measure to improve the prognosis of these patients is rapidly recognizing this condition and reversing the underlying events. For this reason, different renal biomarkers have been studied over the years for early identification of burn-induced AKI, like neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), cystatin C, kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2), interleukin-18 (IL-18), and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7 (IGFBP7). The fundamental purpose of these studies is to find a way to recognize and prevent acute renal injury progression early in order to decrease the risk of mortality and chronic kidney disease (CKD) onset.