Effects of early tangential excision and grafting on survival after burn injury.

This report quantifies the increase of burn survival, which we believe is associated with the use of early tangential excision and grafting as opposed to conventional therapy in adult patients with burns. To quantify the increase, we compared the lethal area 50 of various age groups with that of previous historical studies that used other techniques. These data suggest that early excision and grafting are associated with a marked improvement in survival in patients 41 to 60 years of age with 20 to 65 per cent total body surface area burns.