Critical care of burn patients. New approaches to old problems

•New publications on critical care change our beliefs.•There is no benefit in trying to interfere with early catabolic response.•Parenteral nutrition is a safe and effective method of nutritional support.•Fluid resuscitation guided by lactate levels is safe.•There is limited evidence that specific interventions decrease mortality in ARDS.

Recent publications on treatment options in critically ill patients change beliefs and clinical behaviors. Many dogmas, which the modern management of critical illness relies on, have been questioned. These publications (consensus articles, reviews, meta-analysis and original papers) concern some fundamental issues of critical care: interventions in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), hemodynamic monitoring, glucose control and nutritional support and revise our views on many key points of critical care of burn patients.