Why so little effort to study anti-oxidant therapy in burns?

Abstract

Given that oxidative stress is an inherent response to burn injury, it is puzzling as to why investigation into anti-oxidant therapy as an adjunct to burn treatment has been limited. Both the inflammatory response and the stress response to burn injury involve oxidative stress, and there has been some limited success in studies using gamma tocopherol and selenium to improve certain consequences of burns. Much remains to be done to investigate the number, doses and combinations of anti-oxidants, their efficacy, and limitations in improving defined outcomes after burn injury.