Epidemiology and mortality of burns at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Blantyre, Malawi

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the most common causes, population most at risk and the pattern of mortality of burn injuries at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi.

Design: Retrospective cross sectional study.

Setting: Burns Unit, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), Blantyre, Malawi.

Subjects: One thousand eight hundred and twenty five case files of burn patients admitted to the QECH, Blantyre, between January 1994 and December 1999, involving 941 male and 884 female patients among whom 145 were epileptic.

Main outcome measure: Aetiology of burns and the population most at risk at the QECH, Blantyre.

Results: More males (52%) than females (48%) suffered from burns during the six year study period. Children below age five (55%) were most at risk while 89% were below 30 years of age. Hot water (38%) was the most common cause of burns, but among epileptic patients, it was open fire (83%). While 71% of all inpatients had superficial burns (less than 10% TBSA) 22% had deep burns requiring grafting. Almost all the patients (98%) had multiple antibiotic therapy combined with topical application of silver sulfadiazine. Overall mortality was 12% but among the epileptic patients it was 16%.

Conclusion: Children under five years of age were the major victims of burn injuries in this study. There is, therefore, need to mount effective awareness campaigns in order to target the root causes of burns in children.