monitoring
Last reviewed 01/2018
After a major burn injury, monitoring of nutritional status is vital and must be repeated regularly. Methods for doing this include:
- clinical assessment:
- wasting, cachexia
- skin fold thickness
- weekly weights
- biochemical tests:
- weekly nitrogen balance:
- assessed by 24 hour urine collection for urinary nitrogen
- aim for a positive balance
- serum:
- CRP
- albumin - not very sensitive as long half-life
- liver function tests