Intensive Antibiotic Treatment for Burns Complicated by Pseudomonas Infection

To the Editor:—  The stimulating report by Collentine et al (200:939, 1967) concerning the use of intensive antibiotic therapy and exposure for hospitalized burn patients included a statement that Pseudomonas septicemia had not occurred since the addition of prophylactic intravenously administered polymyxin B sulfate to their treatment regimen. Although our treatment program emphasizing topical antisepsis with 0.5% aqueous silver nitrate had improved burn survival significantly,¹ invasive Pseudomonas infection remained a major threat to our most badly burned patients.² Accordingly, alternate patients sustaining second and third degree burns of 40% of the body surface area or greater received a "prophylactic" regimen of intravenously administered polymyxin B sulfate as described by Collentine et al. This group represented those individuals with a reasonable likelihood of acquiring Pseudomonas infection. The patients treated and not treated were similar as to age distribution, extent of burns, and proportion of full thickness burns, all