Burn Center General Information

USAISR BURN CENTER MAJOR TASK AREAS

The United States Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center serves as the sole facility caring for combat burn casualties, beneficiaries and civilian emergencies within the Department of Defense. The Burn Center provides interdisciplinary care by a team of approximately 300 medical professionals.

State-of-the-art scientific care is coupled with combat casualty care research focused on the priorities of the Institute to improve battlefield care for our combat wounded. Since 2003, the Burn Center has provided care for more than 800 US military burn casualties injured in support of overseas contingency operations and more than 1250 civilian burn victims.

More than 300 of these causalities have been transported by the Institute’s Burn Flight Team which has completed more than 85 overseas missions to transport critically injured patients to the Burn Center for definitive care.

Prevention and mitigation of severe thermal injury is another important aspect of the Burn Center’s ongoing mission.

Collaborative efforts with the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier have resulted in improvement in soldier equipment and clothing to include the recently fielded Army Combat Shirt. The Army Combat Shirt provides enhanced thermal protection for the battlefield soldier through the use of improved fire resistance materials coupled with basic body armament to provide the optimal level of protection against fire and flame related to explosions.

The Burn Centers’ rehabilitation staff continues to provide physical and occupational therapy designed to maximize return to duty of the thermal injury soldier as well as to maximize the long term functional outcomes of those soldiers who have been most severely injured by burns.

The rehabilitation team continues to evaluate and improve methods of therapy to improve range of motion and functional outcome and has performed studies to ensure the most effective therapies are implemented as early as possible during the recovery process. The ISR has partnered with UCLA to establish Operation Mend, a military-civilian partnership to optimize reconstruction for burn patients.

The Burn Center staff is dedicated to providing state of the art care to today’s patients as well as training the next generation of military healthcare professionals including physicians, nurses, and nutritionists.

• Over 800 military service members treated
• Over 300 patients evacuated by the Burn Flight Team (SMART)
• Co-developer of the Army Combat Shirt
• Developed hand burn prevention doctrine
• Reduced burn mortality using continuous renal replacement therapy
• Full spectrum of care from care on the battlefield through evacuation, definitive care and rehabilitation
• Developed manual and automated systems for resuscitation decision support resulting in reduced morbidity and mortality