Ten patients with greater than 70% body surface burn from a group of 113 pediatric thermal injury admissions were studied. Of these children 70% had exision of their burn eschars by carbon dioxide laser and the remaining 30% by scalpel. Burn wounds in all these patients were covered by the expansion autograft technique in an attempt to reduce the resurfacing period in these major burn patients. Survival rate in this small group of patients was 67%.