Plastic surgeons are essential members of the multidisciplinary burn team. Burn injuries remain common, and plastic surgeons have an opportunity to develop and innovate the field of acute burn care in light of workforce shortages. Burn pathophysiology is complex and dynamic, which informs the challenges encountered during the perioperative phase. Accurate burn wound assessment remains difficult, with implications for diagnosis and management. A systematic approach is required when stabilizing a major burn and/or inhalation injury with newly updated fluid resuscitation and triage guidelines. Wound care continues to evolve, with an emphasis on a closed dressing technique. For deeper burns, new surgical techniques are emerging for surgical débridement, along with improvements to traditional methods of tangential excision. Following excision, a number of established and novel techniques are available to close the wound with either autografts or skin substitutes.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) accredits ASPS to provide educational activities and material with Category 1 CME credits. As an official CME provider, ASPS must comply with all ACCME standards, as outlined in the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education.

Faculty
Brittany N. Davis, MD; Hope Xu, MD; Lawrence J. Gottlieb, MD; Sebastian Q. Vrouwe, MD

Plastic and Reconstruction Surgery® Editors:
Editor-in-Chief: Kevin Chung, MD
Co-Editor: Amy Colwell, MD
Section Editor: John Kim, MD

Intended Audience
This educational activity is intended for all CME-related persons including plastic surgery practitioners, residents, and other healthcare professionals.

Learning Objectives
After viewing this course, the participant should be able to:

1. Describe the current epidemiology of burn injuries.
2. Understand burn pathophysiology and perform a wound assessment. 
3. Summarize the initial emergency management of a burn patient.
4. Calculate the anticipated fluid resuscitation requirements for a burn injury, and diagnose the complications of overresuscitation.
5. Describe the diagnosis and management of inhalation injury.
6. List the goals of wound care for superficial and deep burns, and describe the closed dressing technique.
7. Perform excision of a burn wound.
8. Compare various wound closure techniques using autografts and skin substitutes.

Accreditation
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Designation
The ASPS designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Recognition Statement
The Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits offered by this activity are enhanced by ASPS Learner Credit Reporting for learners who have opted into this reporting. Successful completion of this CME activity enables active American Board of Surgery (ABS) members the opportunity to earn credit toward the CME requirement of the ABS's Continuous Certification program when claimed within 30 days of completion of the activity.

Participants in ASPS-accredited education who want their CME credits reported to certifying and state licensing boards must opt-in to reporting and add their NPI as well as state license ID and/or collaborating board ID(s) before claiming credit.

AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM: 1.0
Patient Safety Credit: 0.5
Media:Journal Article, video
Release Date: 4/01/2024
Expiration Date: 4/01/2027
Estimated time to complete this course: 1 hour

*Course access ends on course expiration date

Directly provided by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons® (ASPS®)

The following planners/faculty members/reviewers have no relevant financial relationships or affiliations to disclose:
Brittany N. Davis, MD; Hope Xu, MD; Lawrence J. Gottlieb, MD; Sebastian Q. Vrouwe, MD