J Compr Ped. In Press(In Press):e58197.
Published online 2017 November 30.
doi: 10.5812/compreped.58197.
Letter
Evaluation of Deceased Pediatric Patients with Burning Injury
Admitted to Sina Hospital, Tabriz, 2011 - 2016
Aysan Abazarloo,
1
and Farzad Rahmani
2,*
1
Department of Internal Medicine, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, IR Iran
2
Emergency Medicine Research Team, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IR Iran
*
Corresponding author: Farzad Rahmani MD, Emergency Medicine Department, Sina Medical Research and Training Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz,
Iran. Tel: +98-4135498144, Fax: +98-4135412151, E-mail: rahmanif@tbzmed.ac.ir
Received 2017 July 17; Accepted 2017 October 09.
Keywords: Burns, Children, Mortality
Dear Editor,
Burn injury is one of the most important injuries to
children (1). Severe burns can cause complications and
mortality in children and are the most common cause of
death related to injury in children (2). Burn injuries, com-
pared to other physical injuries of children, require spe-
cial care, long-term hospital admissions, and various treat-
ments (3). Rafiee and colleagues concluded in their study
that burns are one of the most important health threats in
children and require fundamental planning (4).
Collecting epidemiologic data on patients with burn
injuries can provide important information for designing
appropriate strategies to reduce the prevalence of injuries
and implement appropriate treatment managerial meth-
ods (5). The aim of this study was to evaluate the demo-
graphic status and causes of burns in children who passed
away in the Sina Educational Center, Tabriz, Iran, during a
5year period, 2011 - 2016.
In a cross-sectional descriptive study, at the Sina Edu-
cational Center, Tabriz, Iran, during a 5-year period, 2011 -
2016, the following information were collected: age, sex,
the cause of burn injury, the location of burn injury, burn
severity and percentage, Baux index, and duration of hos-
pitalization. The inclusion criteria included all children
under the age of 12 who were admitted to the burn and in-
tensive care unit (ICU) wards of Sina Educational/Medical
Center, Tabriz. The exclusion criteria included individuals
over the age of 12 and incomplete medical records. This
study was approved by Tabriz Islamic Azad University. Col-
lected data was input into the SPSS 17.0 software. The nor-
mal distribution of data was checked using Kolmogorov-
Smirnov test. Descriptive tests were used to describe the
data.
In this study, the frequency of in-hospital mortality of
children with burns during 5 years was 3.1% (94/3037 pa-
tients), 69.1% male (n = 65). The location of burn accident in
deceased patients was at home in 79.8% of children and out
of the home in the remaining 20.2%. The frequency of burn
causes in deceased patients was 55.3% hot liquids, 42.6%
fire, 1.1% hot food, and 1.1% acid/alkali. In terms of severity
of burn injuries, 6.4% were grade 2 superficial, 89.4% were
grade 2 deep, and 4.3% were grade 3. A total of 93.6% of
these children (n = 88) were admitted to the ICU. In terms
of location of burn in the 94 deceased patients, the ma-
jority of cases had multiple region involvements; the up-
per limbs in 95.7%, the lower limbs in 88.3%, trunk in 83.0%,
the head and neck in7 5.5%, as well as the perineum were
burned in 23.4% of these patients. Table 1 describes the pa-
tients’ quantitative variables.
Table 1. Patients’ Quantitative Variables
Variables First Quartile Median Third Quartile
Age 2 3 5.25
Percent of burning 33 45 55
Baux score 36.75 49 60.25
Admission duration 4 8 15
Owing to the progress in the medical care of burnt
patients and preventive measures, the mortality has de-
creased, while children are at increased risk of death from
burns with a global rate of 3.9 deaths per 100000 popula-
tion. Among the world’s population, children under the
age of 1 year old have the highest rate of death from burns
(6).
In our study, the prevalence of 5-year mortality rate
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