Objective: To investigate the protective effects of the reduced glutathione (GSH) on hepatic injury after delayed resuscitation in patients with severe burn.
Methods: Forty severely burned patients with hepatic injury after delayed resuscitation were randomly divided into two groups: treatment group (T, 20 cases) and control group (C, 20 cases). In the T group, the patients were treated with GSH for 7-14 days, while the patients in the C group were treated with same quantity of "energy mixture" as control. The venous blood sample of each patient of the two groups was collected and examined for the content of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (gamma-GT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBIL), and direct bilirubin (DBIL) before the treatment and 7 days and 14 days after the treatment.
Results: The contents of the enzymes in the T group were significantly decreasing gradually in all patients after 7 days and 14 days of treatment (P<0.05 or P<0.01). In the C group, the enzymes showed a decrease in quantity 7 days after the management but without statistical significance. However, they still showed significant decrease on 14th day with the "energy mixture" treatment (all P<0.05). After 14 days of the treatment, ALT, AST, gamma-GT, TBIL and DBIL showed obvious decrease in the T group compared to the C group (all P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in ALP between the two groups.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicates that early use of GSH may be beneficial in the management of protecting hepatic injury after delayed resuscitation for severe burn.