Burn Shock is hypovolemic shock from fluid loss.

• A. Neurological shock
• B. Hypovolemic shock from fluid loss
• C. Cardiogenic shock
• D. Septic shock

Answer: (B)

Burn injury causes a large amount of fluid to move from the blood vessels into the surrounding tissues because the capillary walls become much more permeable. That fluid shift reduces the amount of blood returning to the heart (lower preload), which lowers cardiac output and leads to poor tissue perfusion — the hallmarks of hypovolemic shock. In the early phase after a burn, this intravascular volume loss is the dominant problem, so burn shock is best understood as hypovolemic shock from fluid loss.

Neurological (or neurogenic) shock isn’t driven by blood volume loss in the same way and involves a loss of sympathetic tone with vasodilation, not the primary fluid depletion seen here. Cardiogenic shock comes from the heart’s pumping ability failing, so preload and output are limited by pump dysfunction rather than by loss of circulating volume. Septic shock results from systemic infection causing widespread vasodilation and maldistribution of blood flow, again differing from the initial volume depletion pattern seen in burn shock.