Respiratory disorders in severely burned patients.

The authors reported their own experiences with prevention and treatment of pulmonary complications developing in burn disease. In burn shock the most important problem is maintenance of a sufficient volume of circulating blood and cardiac output, and effective control of pain resulting from thermal injury. Later, the most important becomes prevention of infections and early mobilization of patients. It was demonstrated that physiotherapy, air humidification, lung expansion and inhalations of broncholytic and mucolytic drugs prevented effectively pulmonary complications. When severe respiratory disturbances developed, controlled respiration was successfully applied in 9 cases.