The past 25 years of pediatric burn treatment in Graz and important lessons been learned. An overview

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to characterize the epidemiology of pediatric and adolescent burns admitted to the Children's Burns Unit at the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Austria, between January 1st 1988 and December 31st 2012.

Methods: This is a retrospective review over the past 25-years and describes admission rate by gender and age groups, causes of burns, anatomical sites of burns, extent and depth of injury, length of hospital stay, child abuse and in-hospital mortality.

Results: In the studied 25 year-period, 1586 pediatric burn patients were admitted. 1451 patients were "acute" admissions, 64 "secondary" admissions and 71 patients did not fulfill the inclusion criteria. Of the 1451 patients, 930 (64%) were male and 521 (36%) female. The majority of patients - 880 or 60.6% - were children from 1 to 5 years of age. Domestic burns occurring at home resulted in 1164 (80.2%) of injuries and scalds were the most common type of thermal trauma with 945 (65.1%) patients. According to the extent of injury 1106 (76.2%) patients suffered burns of <10% with an median length of hospital stay of 3 days. 14 children (0.98%) - 8 girls and 6 boys - were confirmed victims of abuse and 4 patients (0.3%) died.

Conclusion: The study provides a good opportunity to review changes in burn care over a long time period, at a single center, including children and adolescents, with stable surgical and rehabilitation staff. The data is also important for the design of prevention programs and establishment of burn care capacities, since the analysis showed no change in the incidence of burn related admissions over the time period studied.

Keywords: Burn center; Burns; Epidemiology; Length of hospital stay (LOS); Pediatric; Prevention.