A brief history of treatment of burn injury in China

Burn injury probably first occurred during the prehistoric era, soon after human beings were able to make fire for cooking and keeping warm during cold seasons. It had been stated in the old medical writings that the death of a burn victim was due to an assault to the heart by flame toxin. Though different kinds of salves had been used for the treatment, the efforts were usually of no avail and the victims succumbed to the injury. In the early 20th century, modern medical sciences were introduced into China and burn victims were taken care of by surgeons who had received modern medical training. However, burn care remained to be a poorly defined discipline as a minor subject in the realm of general surgery. We were totally ignorant as regards excruciating disturbances in homeostasis after a burn trauma. In the 30s of the last century, we were categorically told by our surgical professors that a burn injury covering over 30% total body surface area (TBSA) was almost invariably fatal. Though we were advised to use tannic acid and silver nitrate to smear all over the