Citation

Menger T, Krijnen P, Tuinebreijer WE, Breederveld RS. J. Burn Care Res. 2014; 35(6): 508-513.

Affiliation

From the *Department of Surgery, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands; †Association Dutch Burn Centers, Beverwijk, The Netherlands; and ‡Department of Surgery-Traumatology, Red Cross Hospital Beverwijk, Beverwijk, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Burn Association, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/BCR.0000000000000002

PMID

24496305

Abstract

In the literature no study was found about the effect of localization of burns on outcome. The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate the effect of localization on outcome parameters of 371 patients, admitted to our burn center from January 2009 to December 2011. The patients were included in the study if more than 80% of the burn(s) was localized either on the extremities or on the head and/or trunk. Two groups of TBSA were elaborated, low: 0 to 5% and intermediate: 5 to 15%. Two-hundred ninety-two patients (78.7%) had a low TBSA (<5%) and 79 (21.3%) an intermediate TBSA (5-15%). None of the included patients died. The patients with an intermediate TBSA were on average 8.0 days longer admitted compared with the patients with a low TBSA adjusted for age and depth (95% confidence interval: 6.5-9.4). The patients with burns on the head and/or trunk were more often admitted to the intensive care unit, mostly as a result of suspected inhalation injury (6.2 vs 0.9%; P =.008). More complications were seen in the intermediate TBSA group. In this study no difference in outcome was found between burns on the head and/or trunk or on extremities. The patients with burns on the head and/or trunk group are more frequently admitted to intensive care.

Language: en