Griesdale, Donald

Hypertension (HTN) is the most common comorbidity seen in patients who sustain a major burn. HTN causes increased responsiveness of the autonomic nervous system to stressful stimuli, activation of RAAS, arterial and myocardial hypertrophy, and impaired vasodilation. Changes to these pathways are also seen in response to major burns. Given this common pathophysiology, patients with pre-existing HTN may demonstrate different mortality risk after major burn than those without HTN. The objective of this study is to compare the risk of in-hospital mortality among adult patients with and without pre-existing HTN admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with a major burn. In addition, we sought to determine the association of pre-existing HTN with the need for vasoactive agents, fluid resuscitation and urine output in the first 48-hours of ICU admission