Christian Messa
(409) 772-NEWS
jcmessa@utmb.edu
FOR RELEASE: August 30, 2005

 Mayday Fund pledges $180,000 to support improved pain treatments for
burned children
Commitment would create database to monitor treatments, facilitate improvements

GALVESTON, Texas — Every year, thousands of children suffer severe burns that require emergency room treatment, and their rehabilitation is often painful, both physically and emotionally. Thanks to a $180,000 pledge from the Mayday Fund, University of Texas Medical Branch physicians will be able to develop a pain management database for young burn patients that will speed improvements in the treatment of their pain and anxiety.

The database will monitor the patients’ progress as they undergo treatments for pain, itching, anxiety and acute distress disorder, keeping track of the patients’ response to new medications and procedures and leading to the modification of treatments as needed. Pain protocols are currently evaluated every three to five years and can take more than a year to analyze, often making the evaluations obsolete. The improved protocols will be shared with other academic health institutions through professional meetings, publications and papers.

Dr. Walter J. Meyer III, a professor in UTMB’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a pioneer in the treatment of pain and anxiety in burned children, will lead the development of the pain management database. “Since the body can express pain in so many ways, pain therapy should be highly individualized and frequently adjusted to address the needs of each patient,” said Meyer, who holds the Gladys Kempner and R. Lee Kempner Professorship in Child Psychiatry. “This database will help make that possible.”

UTMB physicians treat about 280 severely burned children each year at the Shriners Hospital for Children–Galveston, one of the nation’s leading pediatric burn-care centers. The hospital, located next to the university’s campus and staffed by UTMB researchers and physicians, provides free care to children.

UTMB and the Shriners organization have been collaborating since 1966, when Galveston became the site of the first Shriners Burns Hospital in the world. That collaboration has sparked numerous advances in burn care, including unique approaches to nutrition to promote healing and the development of pressure garments, now widely used to reduce scarring. These and other discoveries have resoundingly improved survival rates, especially among children.

UTMB President John D. Stobo thanked the Mayday Fund for helping the university remain at the forefront of burn care. “We appreciate the Mayday Fund’s support and recognition of Dr. Meyer’s groundbreaking research in this area. This commitment, and what it makes possible, will allow us to make great progress in our efforts to help pediatric burn patients heal,” Stobo said.

Dr. David N. Herndon, UTMB professor of surgery and chief of staff at Shriners Hospital for Children–Galveston, said the pain management database will significantly help the faculty and staff reduce burn patients’ physical pain and emotional discomfort. “This database will be an invaluable tool in helping us more quickly determine which pain treatments work or don’t work for individual patients,” said Herndon, the Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Chair in Burn Surgery. “Such constant monitoring will speed their treatment and ensure they are as comfortable as possible.”

Established in 1992 by the estate of Shirley Steinman Katzenbach, the New York City-based Mayday Fund is dedicated to furthering her commitment to social and medical causes. The Mayday Fund’s trustees selected Katzenbach’s special interest in pain treatment as the core mission of the philanthropy. For more than 10 years, the Mayday Fund has supported various projects pertaining to the alleviation of physical human pain, including public attitude surveys concerning pain and its treatment, professional and public advocacy group assistance, documentation and role model programs, and academic and clinical research.

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