Nutritional care for adult burn survivors during the rehabilitation phase

Background

Innovations in medicine have increased the survival rate of patients with burn injuries. Adult burn survivors, however, need comprehensive care, which could promote their wellness after a burn injury. Proper nutritional care, inducing nutritional education provided by Registered Dietitians (RDs) plays a crucial role in improving the wellness of adult burn survivors in the acute and rehabilitation recovery phases. The nature of research in nutritional care during the rehabilitation phase, however, needs to be mapped to promote evidence-based practice. This review identified and mapped the nature of research in nutritional care for adult burn survivors during the rehabilitation phase.

Methods

A complete systematic search was conducted by one reviewer in conjunction with a medical librarian using the PubMed database. This review included all types of peer-reviewed publications, and the published dates and geographic locations were unlimited. Only articles involving adults with at least 20% of TBSA burn were included.

Results

Among 26 articles meeting the inclusion criteria, the identification and mapping of the included articles led to four key findings: the continuum of nutritional assessment and education, the effectiveness of specific nutrients on burn outcomes, the necessity of monitoring vitamin D levels, and the need of RDs as a member in a burn care team.

Conclusions

This review includes different study designs with broad published dates, locations, and sample size, and provides the needed identification and mapping of literature. Using more than one database and including more than one reviewer would increase the rigours of the methodology, therefore, the findings.