Burn Shock and Extravascular Sodium Deficiency—Treatment With Ringer's Solution With Lactate

Abstract

NONSYMPTOMATIC or objective treatment of any biologic disorder rests upon the physician's ability to remove the cause of the disorder, to lighten environmental loads having either a positive or a negative quality, or to substitute—physically, chemically, or mechanically—for deficient organ functions. In the case of burn therapy, removal of the cause of the injury, thermal energy, is now recognized to be impossible. However, as long as heat was held to be a substance called "caloric," and was thought to continue its deleterious action in the burned part until dissipated into the air or removed by caloric absorbers such as cold water and ice, cooling a burn was considered to be proper scientific treatment. Icing burns is still practiced, although the scientific reason for it has been proved false. Today, there are only two avenues open for the development of the objective treatment of burns: to lighten biologic loads imposed