Citation

Sanyaolu L, Javed MU, Eales M, Hemington-Gorse S. Burns 2016; 43(3): 632-637.

Affiliation

The Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, Morriston Hospital, Swansea SA6 6NL, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.burns.2016.10.004

PMID

27816410

Abstract

Paediatric burns make up a significant proportion of burn injured patients seen within the hospital setting and worldwide account for a significant proportion of unintentional deaths. Currently there is limited data on severe paediatric burns requiring intensive care support. Our study aimed primarily to describe the epidemiology of severe burns admitted to the intensive care unit at our centre receiving fluid resuscitation over a 10 year period. A secondary aim was to describe the referrals patterns in general over the same time period. A retrospective analysis was performed for paediatric patients referred to our centre receiving fluid resuscitation and intensive care support from 2003 to 2013. We also analysed the patterns of referrals, admissions and need for surgical intervention over the same time period retrospectively. Children less than 5 years old made up 65% of admissions to intensive care and scald injuries (56%) were the commonest aetiology. Both total length of stay (25 days in 2003 to 10 days in 2013) and intensive care length of stay (7.2 days in 2003 to 3 days in 2013) decreased during the study and less patients underwent operative intervention. Referrals to our centre increased from 261 in 2003 to 366 in 2013, however admission rates declined from 145 to 85 during that time period. Currently there is limited data on severe burns within the paediatric population. Our study provides epidemiological data in this area, an important step for developing future prevention strategies.

Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Language: en