A Five Year Burn Unit Experience at King Hussein Medical Center : 2005 to 2009

Abstract

Objective: To describe the demographic characteristics, age, gender, monthly distribution, causes of burns, burned Total Body Surface Area, site of injury and mortality among burn patients referred to the burn unit at the Royal Rehabilitation Center. Methods: The medical records of 400 patients (range, one day to 95 years of age) admitted to the Royal Rehabilitation Center Burn unit at King Hussein Medical Center during the period between January 2005 and December 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. A specially designed medical record abstract form was used to collect the relevant data. Simple descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, percentage, Pie and Bar charts) were used to describe the study variables. Result: The highest risk age group of burn injuries was from one day to 14 years of age (n=156, 39%), with the greatest number of injuries occurring to children who were between one to two years of age. The overall male-to-female ratio was 1.5:1. Seasonal variations had an influence on the increased number of admissions to the burn unit where the frequency increased in the winter season, and mainly in January and February. Scalding was the major cause among pediatric burns. Direct flame burns were the most frequent cause of burns in adults and the second-leading cause in children. Trunk and arms were mostly affected by burns. Fifty- seven patients died, with an over all mortality of 14.3%, the mortality rate in children was 2.3 %, and the mortality rate in adult males and females were 7.0 % and 5.0%, respectively. The average percentage of burns for all patients was 27.2%, while it was 59.9% in the deceased patients. Conclusion: Children are at high risk from burn injuries, the main cause of which is scalding. Among adults, the main cause of burn injuries was flame burns. The mortality rate is highly related to the percentage of burn. Most burns are preventable and, hence, educational programs should be included in the school and university curriculum to inform the public about the causes of burns and methods of prevention social network media should be in the program.