Citation

Locke M, Wilton S, Borowczyk K, Stapelberg F, Wong She R. J. Burn Care Res. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Burn Association, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1093/jbcr/irab019

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

On December 9th 2019, Whakaari / White Island volcano in New Zealand erupted with 47 people on the island. 31 people survived long enough to enter the New Zealand National Burn network - 13 were repatriated to Australia within 72 hours and 14 of the remaining 18 were treated at the National Burn Centre at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland. Our department has previously published a model to calculate the total operative requirements for any given burn surface area for the first four weeks of burn treatment. From this model we calculated the predicted surgical time and operative visit requirements for each patient and compared this to their actual requirements. Actual requirements were also recorded beyond four weeks until discharge.

RESULTS show average variance for operative minutes was significantly above predicted with both the full thickness burn model (average variance 3.24) and the electrical burn model (average variance 2.65). There was a wide range in both cases (0.54 to 6.17 and 0.44 to 5.06 respectively). There was less variance from predicted values of operative visits required than operative minutes (mean: 1.58; range 0.9 - 3.02). Overall, the values for patients with smaller burns showed the greatest variability from predictions with regards to the total number of operative visits over the first four weeks of care. Additionally, patients with burn sizes greater than 50% TBSA required significant theatre access beyond four weeks. Analysis of these findings will assist with future planning in both disaster and non-disaster settings in the provision of burn care.

Language: en

Keywords

burn disaster; burns model; operative requirements; Volcanic burns; Volcanic eruption