Burn Injury in Stroke Patients

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To provide epidemiologic data of the burn injuries in stroke patients and to determine the most effective prevention and education methods. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who had been admitted to the burn center at the Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital between January 2002 and June 2008. Burn cause, size, depth, duration of hospital stay, rate of operation performed, outcomes and time from stroke onset to burn were reviewed and compared. RESULTS: We reviewed the charts of total 87 patients (57 men and 30 women with a mean age of 61.95+/-14.48 years). Places of burn were divided into two groups (at home n=52, outside n=25) and patients injured at home were more than twice than who were outside. According to etiology of infarction, patients group was divided into ischemic (n=49) and hemorrhagic (n=38) group. Most of the patients were injured from flame burn. The rate of operation for ischemic group was significantly higher than hemorrhagic group. The etiology of infarction and cause of burn were not significant to prognosis. Chronic group (defined as burn occurred 6 months after the onset of stroke) had the higher incidence of burn injuries. But, there was no significant relationship between the time from stroke onset to burn and burn cause, prognosis, rate of operation, total body surface area burned. Non-survivor group had a higher operation rate than survivor group, although there was no difference in total burn surface area. CONCLUSION: Functional recovery of stroke was not associated with burn injury in our study. Flame burn took the highest percentage of burn causes. We believe that studies pooling different center's results are need to improve significance of conclusion drawn from these data.