Characteristics and factors affecting the outcomes of massive burn paediatric patients

Abstract

This study investigated characteristics and factors affecting the outcome of massive burns in children. A retrospective study was conducted on 288 pediatric burn patients (=<16 years old) with burn extent ≥ 30% of total burn surface area (TBSA) admitted to the Le Huu Trac National Burns Hospital from 1/1/2018 to 31/12/ 2022. Patients were divided into two groups of survival and death comparing demographic characteristics, burn features, and outcome. The results showed that most patients were under 6 years old (79.51%), boys (64.58%), due to scald (76.69%). Inhalation injury accounted for 6.25% and the overall mortality rate was 6.94%. There was no remarkable difference between survival and death groups in terms of age, gender, and admission time (p > 0.05). Meanwhile, the death group had significantly greater burn extent, deep burn area as well as the rate of inhalation injury than the survival group (p < 0.01). The most fatal causal agent was flame as compared to scald and other agents (18.75%; p < 0.01). Multivariate analysis showed that the increased deep burn area and the presence of inhalation injury were independent risk factors for mortality with AUC = 0.82; sensitivity: 80%; specificity: 91.42% in the case of combining both variates.