Burns and COVID-19: Is the synergy sinister?

Abstract

Background: A burn injury necessitates immediate emergency treatment that should be furnished securely to the victims. Appropriate precautions need to be undertaken to cut down the risk of exposure. A proper assessment and treatment commencement ought to be carried out before the viral infection has even been excluded as it is a race against time. The prognosis is determined by the established factors with viral infection acting as an ancillary addition. Burns are associated with many systemic disorders such as coagulopathy, sepsis, and respiratory distress which need to be differentiated from similar manifestations of the disease. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in our burn unit (analysing data from Burn Registry of the Department), comparing various parameters during the pandemic year with those of the previous year. The aim was to observe whether COVID-19 has any sinister impact on burn management and outcome or not. Results: There was a 30.5% decrease in burn admissions with reduction in male burns (9%; M: F ratio decreased from 3:2 to 1:1) and delayed presentations (4%). The epidemiological parameters largely remained unaltered. The intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate and mortality remained the same. Our COVID positivity rate among burns was 5.3%. Conclusion: We conclude that incidence of burn admissions decreased during the pandemic with increase in delayed presentations. The ICU admission rate and mortality increased by 9% rate (outcome) remained unchanged. Hence, COVID-19 did not at the end of the “first wave” put any sinister impact on burn increased, management as well as the outcome.

Keywords

• burn care professionals
• burns
• covid-19
• pandemic
• telemedicine