Dr. Basil A. Pruitt Jr., a consummate clinical and translational surgeon-scientist, has spent over half a century at the forefront of an advancing standard of
burn care. Commanding the US Army Institute for Surgical Research in San Antonio, he trained generations of leading
burn clinicians and allied scientists. At his direction, there were forged discoveries in
resuscitation from
shock, treatment of inhalation injury, control of
burn-related
infections, prevention of iatrogenic complications, and understanding the sympathetic, endocrine, and immune responses to
burn injury. Most consequentially, this team was among the first to recognize and define alterations in the basal metabolic rate and thermoregulation consequent to
burn injury. These investigations prompted groundbreaking insights into the coordinated nervous, autonomic, endocrine, immune, and metabolic outflows that a severely burned patient uses to remain alive and restore homeostasis. Marking his scientific consequence, many of his reports continue to bear fruit when viewed through a contemporary lens. This article summarizes some of the major findings of his career thus far and is intended to
complement a Festschrift recently held in his honor.