Each year 2.5 million Americans suffer a burn injury with 100,000 individuals requiring hospitalization and 10,000 eventually resulting in death. Of the four types of burn injuries, thermal, electrical, chemical, and radiation; thermal injuries are by far the most common. J. PAUL WAYMACK, RANDI L. RUTAN, DAVID HERNDON: Burns in ESSENTIALS OF SURGERY 2ND . W. B. Saunders Company 1994.