Vitamin C/Ascorbic Acid and Burn Patients.

I can already hear it in my head. "But Eddy, there's no data that Vitamin C does anything for anyone so I refuse to give it even though it's inexpensive and has no side effects based on the CITRIS-ALI study, as well as other studies which have flaws for x, y, and z reasons. I'm going to wait for more data while my patients wait for my ego to come around. And then when that data comes out, I'm going to wait another year just because I'm a contrarian-contrarian."

There are a multitude of reasons why high dose IV Vitamin C (defined as greater than 10gm in 24 hours) should work. This study is wrought with limitations, admitted to by the authors. They conducted some statistical jumping jacks and made some assumptions to make the numbers work. That's just the issue with retrospective studies such as this one where they're trying to make heterogenous populations look alike. It's free meaning you have no excuse to not read it for yourself. I personally do not take care of burn patients. They honestly frighten me. Definite kudos to all the burn unit crews out there who take care of these patients.

I understand that some burn centers in the US are already using IV Vitamin C. Is this a thing at your shop? A hat tip to the authors!

- EJ

Link to Abstract

Link to FULL FREE Article

Nakajima, M., Kojiro, M., Aso, S. et al. Effect of high-dose vitamin C therapy on severe burn patients: a nationwide cohort study. Crit Care 23, 407 (2019)

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