Burn Caused by Pressure Cookers

Abstract

Dietary and food service employees use pressure cookers to cook food. Despite widespread use of pressure cookers, a few burn cases have been reported in the literature.1 We report a case of 44-year-old man who suffered second- and third-degree burn of his arms, shoulders, neck, chin, and face as the result of contact steam. The patient was cooking in the kitchen and used a pressure cooker to make pea soup from split peas. When he removed the lid from the pressure cooker, boiling hot peas escaped. Burn areas were dressed every day, and antibiotic therapy was begun. The burn area was treated conservatively within 5 weeks. Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. It is typical for the pressure of venting to be about 15 psi above atmospheric pressure. That raises the boiling point to about 121°C or 257°F.2,3 This steam may cause serious burns. These burns have a tendency to affect a relatively small BSA but cause a deep localized burn because of the high boiling point.