Alcohol Use and Burn Injury

Abstract

Charts of 108 consecutive adult patients with flame burns of 20% to 70% total body surface area were reviewed to determine the incidence of acute alcohol intoxication and the likelihood that intoxicated patients were chronic alcohol abusers, to assess morbidity and mortality in the alcoholic patient with burns, and to characterize the intervention used in postdischarge treatment of the alcoholic patient with burns who survives. Twenty-seven percent of patients were acutely intoxicated at the time of injury. Evidence for chronic alcohol abuse was apparent in 90% of intoxicated patients, compared to only 11% of nonintoxicated patients (p = 0.0001). Alcoholic patients with burns not only had an overall mortality rate three times that of nonalcoholics (p = 0.001) but also died of smaller burns (p less than 0.05). Surviving alcoholic patients with burns required significantly more intravenous antibiotics and a longer hospitalization. Social service evaluation of use of alcohol was made in 84% of the cases of surviving intoxicated burn victims. Further intervention was undertaken in two thirds of these cases, usually involving an outpatient treatment program.