Epidemiology and evaluation of 1073 burn patients in the southeast of Iran

Burn injury is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In addition to the financial burden it inflicts on the health care system, it can lead to psychologi-cal, social and physical distress both to the patient and family members. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiological parameters in hospitalized burn patient.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study we evaluated data of 1073 hospitalized burn patients in Zahedan Khatam Al Anbia hospital from 2005-2008. All data were extracted from medical record and analyze by SPSS software. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Among 1073 patient with acute burn, 55.4% were male and 44.6% were female. The mean age was 20.94 year old and mean size of burn area was 49.11±29.65 total body surface area (TBSA). Total body surface area burned was significantly higher in those with self-burn (p=0.0001). In children younger than 15 year-old scalds (hot liquid) was the most frequent cause of burn (44%). There was a higher incidence of self-burning in women (p=0.0001) and the mean length of hospital stay was 6.32±5.27 days. The mortality rate in self-burn patient was 87.34 % and in total cases was 41.47 %.
Conclusion: In the present study, most of the burns were noted in 16 to 20 years age group, and more in male than in female subjects. Burn was more frequent in children and adultness and they are considered high-risk groups with higher mortality and morbidity. This shows a need for comprehensive burn prevention programs