Clinical and Statistical Analysis with Age in Cases of Pediatric Burn Patients

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The objective of this study is to analyze the epidemiological characteristics of pediatric burn patients and to determine the targets for a pediatric burn prevention program. METHODS: A retrospective review of all medical records of acute pediatric burn patients (age < 15 years old) admitted to our hospital between January 2005 and December 2009 was performed. RESULTS: 1472 males and 1323 females were investigated, with a male to female ratio of 1.11 1. The greatest number of burn patients were those with an age of 1~2 years (1,463, 52.3%). Scalding burn was the most common cause of injury, which accounted for 2183 (78.1%) patients, followed by contact burns (10.5%), flame burn (4.9%), steam burn (3.6%). Especially steam burn was the second cause of injury in the age under 1 year, while flame burn was the second cause of injury in the age over 7 years. During recent 5 years, incidence of flame burn, steam burn, electrical burn gradually decreased. Variation of seasonal incidence is minimal and most of the patients (2,716 cases, 97.2%) had burns less than 20% TBSA (Total body surface area). The median hospital stay was 18.79 days, and the rate of operation was 28.6% with a high rate in electrical burn (76.2%), flame burn (50.0%), steam burn (46.1%). 6 patients died in this series, which yielded a mortality rate of 0.2%. CONCLUSION: Prevention efforts should reflect recent study results. Focused prevention program and campaign to make people aware of risk factors and their avoidance is required to reduce the number of burn accidents in children.