Characteristics and Mortality Rates of Patients Following Burn Injury: A Retrospective Series of 1942 Cases

Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyze the demographic and epidemiologic features of patients admitted to our burn center, to reveal the preventive measures for burn injuries.

Context: Patients were analyzed for age, sex, etiology, type or severity of burn injury, size of burned area, mortality rates, duration of stay at hospital and other associated injuries. Between 2 months and 79 years of age, 1942 burn patients were included.

Results: The types of burn injury were classified as electrical, flame, scalding, contact, chemical burns and others. Scalding burns were most commonly encountered type of burns (44.74%). The average percentage of burn surface area was calculated as 15.3%. The rate of mortality was higher for electrical burn injuries (17.1% of deceased patients) and flame burns (69.4% of deceased patients).

Conclusions: Burn injuries are preventable disasters with undoable physical and psychological scars, therefore prevention and education programs should be performed.

Key words: epidemiology; burn; mortality; injury; intensive care.