Inflammatory and coagulative pathophysiology for the management of burn patients with COVID-19: systematic review of the evidence.

Abstract

The pathogenesis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) involves a prominent innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, including inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, the complement system and acute phase proteins. This hyperinflammatory response predisposes patients to thromboembolic disease, acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. In burn injuries, damaged tissues induce a local and systemic inflammatory response through pathways associated to COVID-19. As such, a COVID-19 positive patient sustaining burn injuries may have an amplified response to the burn insult due to their baseline hyperinflammatory and hypercoagulable states. Burn patients may have compromised physiological reserve to withstand the insult of surgical intervention before reaching clinical instability. The concurrent pathogenesis of COVID-19 and the inflammatory response in burn injury have serious implications on the management of burn patients.