Citation

Potokar TS, Ali S, Chamania S, Prowse S, Whitaker IS. Burns 2008; 34(1): 3-5.

Affiliation

The Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, Morriston Hospital, Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery, Morriston, Swansea, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.burns.2007.09.004

PMID

18155843

Abstract

According to the WHO, 90% of burns occur in developing or underdeveloped nations and 70% of these are in children. The majority are mild or moderate. Burns of >90% TBSA regularly survive in the worlds best centres now, which is in stark contrast to the mortality for burns of >40% TBSA in most developing or un-developed countries which approaches 100%. An analysis of all 1321 original articles published in �Burns�1 [2] from 1996 to 2006, accessed via the MEDLINE database, show that 73.2% (n = 967) were from developed nations, 29.5% (n = 342) from developing nations and 0.5% (n = 7) from undeveloped nations. In total, 44.7% (n = 591) included data from the paediatric population (age < 18). The USA, with 15.1% (n = 200), and the UK, with 13.9% (n = 184) contributed the most articles. Turkey, a developing nation, ranked 3rd, contributing 7.3% (n = 96) of the articles, and Zimbabwe, with 0.4% (n = 4) of the articles, the most active undeveloped nation.

This article attempts to put into perspective the global problem of burn injuries and hopefully will help set the future agenda for research in burns to facilitate a more equitable distribution of burn care worldwide.

Language: en