Department Name

David W. Mozingo, MD, FACS, is the Director of the Shands Burn Center at the University of Florida.

Faculty members in and associated with the Division of Acute Care Surgery provide comprehensive management for patients with thermal injuries admitted to the Shands Burn Center at UF. Comprehensive multidisciplinary care is provided which spans the early resuscitative phases of care through the long-term rehabilitation and reconstructive phases.

Multidisciplinary Approach

The director coordinates all activities of the multidisciplinary care of the critically ill burn patients. Team members include burn surgeons, plastic and reconstructive surgeons, critical care specialists, anesthesiologists, critical care burn nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, clinical nutritional specialists, psychologists, social workers and pastoral care support personnel. This multidisciplinary approach affords the patient and their family's state of the art resources for optimal outcome, education and rehabilitation.

State of the Art Treatment

Significant advances in the treatment of burns have occurred in the past twenty years. The Burn Center at the University of Florida employs state-of-the-art treatment protocols including the use of artificial skin and cultured keratinocyte grafts for appropriate patients. The technology for optimum management of smoke inhalation injury, which is present in nearly 1/3 of patients with major burns, is also available at this institution.

Patient Referral and Emergency Transport

The Shands Burn Center at the University of Florida functions as a tertiary referral Burn Center for North Florida and Southern Georgia. About 200 patients per year receive inpatient treatment. A multidisciplinary burn outpatient clinic meets twice weekly and treats patients with less extensive acute burns and provides ongoing post-discharge follow-up for those patients with more extensive or complex injuries. The center treats both adult and pediatric patients with thermal injury. Patient referral follows the burn center referral guidelines set forth by the American Burn Association and include patients with the following:

1. Partial-thickness and full-thickness burns greater than 10% of the total body surface area in patients under 10 years or over 50 years of age.

2. Partial-thickness and full-thickness burns greater than 20% BSA in other age groups.

3. Partial-thickness and full-thickness burns involving the face, eyes, ears, hands, feet, genitalia, or perineum or those that involve skin overlying major joints.

4. Full-thickness burns involving greater than 5% of the body surface in any age group.

5. Electrical burns, including lightning injury.

6. Significant chemical burns.

7. Inhalation injury.

8. Burn injury in patients with pre-existing illness that could complicate management, prolong recovery, or affect mortality.

9. Any burn patient in whom concomitant trauma poses an increased risk or morbidity or mortality may be treated initially in a trauma center until stable before transfer to a burn center.

10. Children with burns seen in hospitals without qualified personnel or equipment for their care should be transferred to a burn center with these capabilities.

11. Burn injury in patients who will require special social and emotional or long-term rehabilitative support, including cases involving suspected child abuse and neglect.

In addition the Burn Center routinely cares for patients with exfoliative skin diseases such as toxic epidermal necrolysis syndrome (TENS), staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome and other exfoliative diseases. Also, patients with large wounds resulting from necrotizing soft tissue infections, avulsion injuries or ischemic necrosis benefit from the same multidisciplinary care and wound treatment expertise offered to burn patients. Burn center referral may be obtained by calling the burn center hotline at 352-395-0200 24 hours per day. A burn center attending physician is always available for consultation.

Research

Burn research activities are centered in the surgical metabolism laboratory and University of Florida Wound Healing Center. Studies in the pathophysiologic response to injury and inflammation, control of the catabolic response to burns, and novel methods to facilitate wound healing will extend the scope and effectiveness of burn treatment modalities in years to come.

Clinical Specialties

The shared interest and expertise of burn center facility members cover the entire spectrum of burn injury, smoke inhalation injury and wound management. Special emphasis is placed on the following clinical specialties:

1. Thermal burns

2. Chemical burns

3. Electrical burns

4. Smoke inhalation injury

5. Burns in pediatric patients

6. Exfoliative skin disorders

7. Necrotizing fasciitis and other extensive wounds

8. Rehabilitation therapy

9. Nutritional support

10. Surgical critical care

11. Pre-hospital management, transportation and emergency care

12. Fluid resuscitation and early management

13. Burn reconstruction

14. Burn prevention