Serious Contact Burns in Children; 10 Years Experience of a Pediatric Burn Center

Abstract

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate epidemiological, characteristic features and treatment methods of patients who have been treated in pediatric burn center due to contact burns and to share our experiences. Materials and Methods: Files of patients were evaluated retrospectively. Gender, age, contact mechanisms, localization, total-burnedsurface areas, depth of burn, time between day-of-burn and admission to the burn center, whether grafting was made, length-of-stay in hospital, whether hypertrophic scar and contractures developed were recorded. Then, it was investigated whether there was a difference between genders, and at what age intervals and in which months contact burns were seen more frequently. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS version 21. P <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Of 29 patients, 17 (58.6%) were boys and 12 (41.4%) were girls, their mean-age was 3.34 years, average-total-burned-surfacearea was 4.48%, average day between day of the burn and admission to burn center was 6.34, and the mean length-of-stay in hospital was 13.20 days. The most common cause was touching the stove (51.8%), the most common burned-region was the face (58.6%). Hands were the second most frequently burned-organs (55.2%). Mostly patients were burnt at home and 86.2% of them were <4 years old. Conclusion: Most contact burns occur in young children as a result of preventable home accidents. In order to prevent, parents should be educated and precautions to be taken should be explained. Especially in hand burns, early resting splints should be used to prevent contracture development and physical therapy exercises should be started in the early period.

Keywords

• children
• contact burns
• flexion contracture
• graft
• hypertrophic scar