Pediatric burns and the leading factors of burn injury

Abstract

Objective: Burn trauma is an important health problem especially in children who are mostly the affected group as they are not fully capable of protecting themselves from injuries. The aim of this study is to present the clinical features of preschool pediatric burn patients treated in our tertiary reference burn center and highlight the main factors leading to burn injury. Material and Methods: This study was conducted between 1 January 2021 and 30 June 2021 in our tertiary burn center. A total of 123 patients at preschool age who were hospitalized are included in this cross-sectional study. The clinical features, burn etiology and the environmental factors leading to burn injury were obtained from patient files, hospital registry and face to face interviews with parents of hospitalized children. Results: The mean age of the study population was 2.40±1.3 years. The etiology of burn was mainly scalds (%87.8) followed by flame (%10.6) and electrical burns (%1.6). Among the patients 81 (%65.9) of them were living in urban area, 32 (%26) in rural area and 10 (%8.1) in tents or refugee camps. The household population was 5.53±2.3. The children were not alone (%84.6) during the burn injury and in %54.5 of cases the kitchen was the place of injury. Conclusion: Overcrowded conditions were prominent among the patients. Although there was an adult nearby at the time of injury there was lack of supervision by the caregiver. The burns are likely to occur in the kitchen where unsafe cooking and dining on the floor takes place. Therefore preventive strategies are required to imply the importance of simple safety measures for safe cooking and dining if the children cannot be kept away from the kitchen

Keywords

• burns
• pediatric patients
• preschool age
• environmental factors
• yanık
• çocuk hastalar
• okul öncesi yaş
• çevresel faktörler