Paediatric burns in Jaipur, India: an epidemiological study

Abstract

This retrospective review contains 127 paediatric burns up to 14 years of age admitted to the Burn Unit of the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, SMS. Medical College, Jaipur over a period of 1 year from January 1990. Epidemiological data include age, sex, seasonal variation, place of burn, family size, economic status, period of time between the accident and admission to hospital. The cause and mode of burn, the relationships between mortality and age, cause of burn and extent of burn are discussed. Most of the burn injuries occurred in the winter months between December and March. Males were affected predominantly. The majority of the burns occurred at home. Most of the patients belonged to the low socioeconomic strata and were members of medium or large size families. The commonest causes of injury were scalds in children under 5 years of age and flames in the older children. The overall mortality was 19.68 per cent.