The diagnosis and management of inhalation injury: An evidence based approach

We are able to identify a number of strategies in both diagnosis and treatment of II that have support in the published literature, including the role of bronchoscopy, permissive hypercapnia, nebulized heparin and hydroxycobalamin. Other strategies have not been shown to be harmful, but their efficacy is also not firmly established, such as high frequency oscillatory ventilation and exogenous surfactant. Prophylactic antibiotics and corticosteroids are not recommended. In general, published evidence for II is mostly Level 3 or below, due to a noticeable lack of large-scale human studies. This represents a challenge for evidence-based burns practice as a whole.