Adults with well-healed burn injuries have lower pulmonary function values decades after injury

Sub-acute (e.g., inhalation injury) and/or acute insults sustained during a severe burn injury impairs pulmonary function. However, previous work has not fully characterized pulmonary function in adults with well-healed burn injuries decades after an injury. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that adults with well-healed burn injuries have lower pulmonary function years after recovery. Our cohort of adults with well-healed burn-injuries (n = 41) had a lower forced expiratory volume in one second (Burn: 93 ± 16 vs. Control: 103 ± 10%predicted, mean ± SD; d = 0.60, p = 0.04), lower maximal voluntary ventilation (Burn: 84 [71–97] vs. Control: 105 [94–122] %predicted, median [IQR]; d = 0.84, p < 0.01), and a higher specific airway resistance (Burn: 235 ± 80 vs. Control: 179 ± 40%predicted, mean ± SD; d = 0.66, p = 0.02) than non-burned control participants (n = 12). No variables were meaningfully influenced by having a previous inhalation injury (d ≤ 0.44, p ≥ 0.19; 13 of 41 had an inhalation injury), the size of the body surface area burned (R² ≤ 0.06, p ≥ 0.15; range of 15%–88% body surface area burned), or the time since the burn injury (R² ≤ 0.04, p ≥ 0.22; range of 2–50 years post-injury). These data suggest that adults with well-healed burn injuries have lower pulmonary function decades after injury. Therefore, future research should examine rehabilitation strategies that could improve pulmonary function among adults with well-healed burn injuries.