School of Medicine

Division of Burn Care & Research

The Division of Burn Surgery at LSU Health New Orleans is the surgical faculty of the UMCNO Verified Burn Center, the only Fully ABA-Verified Burn Center in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or Arkansas.  We work closely with Trauma Center colleagues to care for concomitantly injured patients with burn and traumatic injuries at double the national rate (21.1% vs 9.3%).  With the combination of that partnership, such a large referral area, and with many cultural, economic, and environmental contributors to higher risks of burn injuries in our area, we see a unique patient population of more severely and uncommonly injured patients than our peer institutions.  For patients with burns exceeding 20% of total body surface area, we see almost double the national average (13.1% vs 7.0%), for electrical injuries we see almost triple the national average (7.1% vs 2.6%), and for chemical injuries we see almost 1.5 times the national average (5.1% vs 3.4%).

Beyond patient care, we also are a national leader in burn research, holding multiple Department of Defense awards, multiple Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) awards, and numerous industry research awards, all with the goal of advancing burn care on a regional, national, and international level. Our burn surgeons also work closely with local, state, regional, and national authorities for disaster preparedness and have traveled to every inhabited continent on Earth to provide burn care, burn education, or perform burn research.  Between the severity of our patients' injuries, the complexity of the care we provide, the research exposure we offer to our trainees, and the broad scope of our practice and interests at a global level, we offer a unique and valuable experience to the trainees on our service, and we look forward to the opportunity to teach you about burn care.