Editorial

Dear Colleagues,

What is the reason for creating a special issue of this journal solely on the subject of burns? Burn therapy has undergone great progress in the last twenty years. We know that a large burn lesion is perhaps the most severe form of polytrauma. Nearly 3000 severely burned patients are treated every year in German burn centres. But even more burn victims are admitted to non-specialised hospitals with departments of general or trauma surgery.

Therefore we have set ourselves some goals: We want to instruct surgeons in the modern therapy for burns. We want to show the criteria for transferring a burn patient to a special unit. And, last but not least, we intend to give an overview of modern strategies in the research and treatment of burns in the German-speaking countries.

We were able to persuade some specialists from Austria, Switzerland and Germany to publish their experience in this special issue. Basic research, new developments in surgery and anaesthesiology, biotechnology, modern possibilities of data processing and mass burn casualties are among the topics of the publications.

In this respect, the authors address not only their fellow burn specialists but also those surgeons who are occasionally involved in the treatment of burn patients.

An additional aspect is worthy of special emphasis. The articles show in an exemplary fashion the importance of collaboration within the so-called “burn team” and with other scientific disciplines.

In this context, I hope you will gain some benefit by reading about the different aspects of burns, a subject that is, on the one hand, so closely related but, on the other hand, meanwhile so far distant from traumatology.

Sincerely yours,
K.-K. Dittel

Correspondence