Etiology and outcome of pediatric burns

Abstract

Introduction: Burn injury in children continues to be a major epidemiologic problem around the globe. Nearly a fourth of all burn injuries occur in children under the age of 16, of whom the majority are under the age of five. Most burn injuries are minor and do not necessitate hospital admission. Materials and Methods: In a retrospective and prospective study of 156 patients aged 0-18 years with thermal burns, grade I, II, IIIAB and IV hospitalized for burns over two years period (2012-2013) patients characteristics, circumstances of burn injury and prevalence of established predisposing factors were determined, in burn department of the Institute of Mother and Child and the Intensive Care Unit in Chisinau. Results: High frequency of thermal burns injuries in children in the age group 1-5 years due to the high physical activity with relatively poor motor coordination (66.93%). Boys (59.5%) may have a high prevalence of burn accidents in comparison with girls (40.5%). Because boys more an active and troublemaker than girls. 59% percent of the children's injuries were scalds, with 71 percent of those caused by hot liquids and 29 percent caused by hot food. In 84,74% of burn injuries in children were hospitalized. According to the data 45.5% of the patients their admission are in the first 6 hours after exposure to burn injury and so about 20.51% of the patient arrive after 72 hours. Most of the patients were hospitalized with mild injuries (40.47%) and that due to early hospitalization of the patient. Conclusions: Research found that the frequency burns in children up to 18 years is on rise in recent years. The predominant etiologic factor structure are scald injury (58.99% ) and superficial burns predominate among clinical forms (51.04%).