Pediatric Burns

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Burns remain a common public problem among children and often cause severe injuries, resulting in physical and mental problems for the patients. Children constitute a risk group because of their natural curiosity, their mode of reaction, their impulsiveness and lack of experience in risk assessment. PURPOSE: The objects of this study were to characterize pediatric burn injuries and to understand their clinical outcomes in Korea. METHODS: we analyzed the records of the 1401 pediatric burn patients (age 0~15 years old) out of the 4423 burn patients, who have been admitted to the Burn Center, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University for 5 years (1991~1995). RESULTS: Males were more affected than females; 58.1% were males and 41.9% were females. Most thermal injuries in children occur in the age group younger than 5 years (82%); especially 66.9% of pediatric burn patients were under the age of 3. Scalding burns accounted for 72.5%, and flame burns fors 18.1%. Most pediatric burns occurred in urban areas. The most common activities related to pediatic burn injuries were food preparation and food consumption, which accounted for 57.5% of all burn injuries. In 66% of the cases, the extent of the burned surface was under 10%. In 77.8% of the cases, the depth of the burn wound was 2nd degree. In 63.9% of the cases, the duration of hospitalization was 3 weeks or less. The incidence of wound infection was 14.8%, and 50% of the infections were caused by Pseudomonas aerusinosa. The major complications were wound infection (30.9%), hypertrophic scarring (21.4%) and irritant dermatitis (20.3%). The mortality rate in a series of 1,401 pediatric patients was 2.6%. The main causes of death were sepsis, burn shock, ARDS and air way obstruction. When 51~70% of the surface area was burned the mortality was 25%, when over 70% of the surface area was burned the mortality was 81.3%. SPCCULATION The successful way to prevent pediatric burn is to reduce the risk to children by effective intervention.