Epidemiological Study of Mass Casualties at A Tertiary Burn Center in Ain-Shams University: Management and Outcomes

Abstract

Purpose: To report, analyze different aspects of masscasualty incidents resulting from household fires due toexplosion of gas cylinders presented to our Burn Unit from2013 to 2017.Methods: Data of all burn mass casualty incidents fromadmitted to the Burn Emergency Unit of Ain Shams University,Cairo, Egypt; from January 2013 to December 2017 werecollected from the Burn Unit and its Intensive Care Unitrecords, reviewed and described.Results: Six incidents from flame burn caused by householdexplosion of gas cylinders took place in the past 5 years.33 victims were involved in the incidents and admitted to ourunit; male: female ratio was 2.7:1. The ages of the admittedpatients ranged from 2.6y-51y. The extent of burns rangedfrom 10-68% of TBSA affecting head and neck, torso andextremities. A total numbers of 44 operations were performedto all the patients during their stay in the form of emergencyescharotomies in 12 patients and 32 sessions of excision ofthe deep partial and full thickness burns and split-thicknessskin grafting in 19 patients. All patients survived and dischargeduneventfully except only for 4 deaths (12%) withmean hospital stay duration of 30 days. Complications thatdeveloped in the admitted cases include wound infections(12.50%), hypertrophic scars (12.50%), altered skin color(8.33%) and psychotic manifestations (6.24%).Conclusion: Retrospective analysis of the therapeuticdata of these cases demonstrates that management of massburn causalities requires pre-designed disaster planning, wellequipped center, trained personnel and these are the keyelements in successful management.