Analysis of 2759 Pediatric Burn Patients: 2000-2004.

Kim, Myong Cheol; Lee, Jong Wook; Chung, Jin Ah; Ko, Jang Hyu; Seo, Dong Kook; Oh, Suk Joon; Jang, Young Chul

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons 2006;33(5):581-586.
Published online September 1, 2006.

Analysis of 2759 Pediatric Burn Patients: 2000-2004.

Myong Cheol Kim, Jong Wook Lee, Jin Ah Chung, Jang Hyu Ko, Dong Kook Seo, Suk Joon Oh, Young Chul Jang

¹Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul, Korea. ycjang54@paran.com
²Departments of Medical Record, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
Pediatric burn still generates social problem leading to physical and mental sequelae for ages. We studied to help make a program for the prevention of pediatric burn. METHODS: We analyzed retrospectically 2759 acute burn patients under the age of 15 years in recent 5years (January 2000 - December 2004).
RESULTS
1553 males and 1226 females were investigated, with a male to female ratio of 1.25:1. The greatest number of burn patients were those with an age of 1-2 years(1435, 52%). Scalding burn was the most common cause of injury, which accounted for 1980 (71.8%) patients, followed by contact burns(286, 10.4%), flame burn(229, 8.3%), steam burn(141, 5.1%). Especially steam burn was the second cause of injury in the age under 1 year, while flame burn was the same in the age over 3 years. During recent 5 years, incidence of contact burn increased over twofold despite the others did not changed substantially. Variation of seasonal incidence is minimal and most of the patients(2545 cases, 92.2%) had burns of < = or 20% TBSA. The median hospital stay was 18.3 days, and the rate of operation was 35.4% with an high rate in electrical burn(70.6%), steam burn(68.8%), contact burn(65%). 27 patients died in this series, which yielded a mortality rate of 1%.
CONCLUSION
We expect that these data will be used as a basis for prevention of pediatric burn.

Keywords: Pediatric burn; Epidemiology; Prevention