Glutamine Effects in Burn Patients

Overview

The study is designed to evaluate the effect of parenteral glutamine supplementation on infection in burn patients.

Despite improvements in prevention and management, burn injury continues to represent a major threat to the health and welfare of people worldwide in all age groups. Even with early surgical intervention and aggressive antibiotic therapy, infectious complications are a major cause of death in severe burn injury, accounting for 75% of all deaths occurring after initial resuscitation. It is proposed that one source of these infections is a translocation of gram-negative bacteria from the gut. However, this mechanism of bacterial translocation through the gut wall remains a controversial mechanism of infection in humans. In animal studies, it has been demonstrated that glutamine supplementation can decrease gut-derived bacterial translocation and improve outcomes from burn injury. Whether this holds true in humans has to be evaluated by additional studies. A recent study concluded that glutamine supplementation reduces gram-negative bacteremia in burned patients but viewed itself as preliminary and suggested that more clinical trials are warranted to corroborate the study outcome.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes