Vitamin E Supplementation in Burn Patients

Our recent findings demonstrate that burn injury significantly depleted stores of vitamin E in adipose tissue of children by nearly 50 within one month of injury. The consequences of this severe and rapid depletion are unknown because adipose tissue alpha-tocopherol normally takes years to deplete. Our long-term goal is to improve the quality of life of the burn patient by preventing pathophysiology that may result from oxidative stress. The objectives of our proposal were to a attenuate alpha-tocopherol depletion in burn patients by vitamin E supplementation, b to prevent or reverse oxidative stress, c to collect pilot data on the effect of vitamin E supplementation on lung function and impaired wound healing. We have administered vitamin E supplements to burn subjects for either days 1-15 or days 16-30 of the study n21 per group, 16-85 years, 40 total body surface area burns at the Blocker Burn Unit BBU at the University of Texas Medical BranchUTMB in Galveston, the Burn Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Hermann Hospital BICU-MHH in Houston, and the Parkland Health and Hospital System Burn Unit PHHS-BU in Dallas.