A retrospective epidemiological study of 385 burn patients hospitalized during 6 years in bursa

Abstract

A retrospective analysis of 385 consecutive admissions to a regional burns unit in a period of 6 years is presented. The majority were flame burns, followed by scalds. The male to female ratio was 3: 1. More than half of the patients were adults (more than the age of 16 years) and most of the injuries occurred at home. In the group of patients under 2 years of age, scalds were the leading cause of burns and among them hot tea spill was the most common reason. Many of the electrical burns occurred at the workplace and at home were resulted from inappropriate close location of high voltage lines to constructions and houses, and inappropriate use of paint thinner was found to be an important cause for flame burns occurred at the work place. The mean hospitalization time was 27.1 days and the overall mortality rate was 14% (n=54). In this paper, regional characteristics of some etiologic factors, together with some descriptive analysis in burn injury and some preventive measures are presented.