Burn injury alters the gut microbiome and Increases gut permeability and bacterial translocation. A study showed that in burn injury patients , there was a huge increase in Enterobacteriaceae, a family of potentially harmful bacteria. On the other hand, there was a corresponding decrease in beneficial bacteria that normally keep harmful bacteria in check.
The gastrointestinal tract contains over 100 trillion microbes that provide numerous benefits for the host such as metabolism and de novo synthesis of nutrients, protection against pathogenic microbes, and immune development and function. In patients with severe trauma from the burn, 75% of them die from sepsis that stems from bacterial infections, toxins, or metabolic products that activate pattern recognition receptors and lead to a systemic inflammatory response in immunocompromised individuals. On the other hand, the healthy…
