Infants under 1 year of age have a significant risk of burn injury
Introduction
Burns are one of the most physically and psychologically devastating forms of injury in children and as one of the most common household injuries are an important cause of morbidity and mortality [1], [2]. In both developed and developing countries, children under the age of 5 experience greater mortality from burns than any other age group [1], [2]. Because of the relative lack of mobility and independence within this age group, one would expect burns to be preventable yet they continue to occur and with them the long-term consequences. The economic cost of a burn can be substantial and continues to rise after the initial injury. For this reason, paediatric burns have enormous economic implications and pose a considerable burden to the health service, hence the funding of prevention strategies would be economically viable. However, the financial cost of a burn injury is inconsequential when compared to the impact and cost of the burn to the individual both physically and psychologically [3], [4]. Burn epidemiology is a useful tool to identify populations at increased risk, upon whom interventions to decrease the incidences of such injuries can be targeted [5], [6]. In this manner, a greater understanding of burn epidemiology in the under 1 year old population may be essential in order to direct more effective burn prevention strategies.
Section snippets
Methods
The Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery serves a population of approximately 2.4 million over South and Mid-Wales. Approximately 300 cases of acute burns admissions are seen annually in patients aged less than 17 years of age. Data was retrospectively collected from the computerised “Phoenix” database at The Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Morriston hospital in Swansea. All patient details are entered into the Phoenix database by a full time researcher. As well as patient
Results
A total of 104 patients under the age of 1 year were seen at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery between January 2003 and January 2006. There were 59 males (56.7%) and 45 females (43.3%). Total number of cases increased across the age ranges from less than 1-month-old to 11 months old with burns incidence appearing to peak at 9 months old. Sixty-six (63.5%) of the patients required admission to hospital whilst 38 (36.5%) were treated as out-patients.
Scalds were the commonest type of
Discussion
This retrospective study highlights the frequency of burns in patients under the age of 1 year old. It was widely shown that young children under the age of 3 are at an increased risk of sustaining burn injury [7] but there is less data specifically concerning patients aged less than one. The 104 admissions of infants in our study represents 11.8% of all paediatric admissions under the age of 17 and 31% of paediatric admissions under 2 years of age seen as acute burn referrals at the Welsh
Conclusions
In order to fully assess the epidemiology of burns in this patient group and include other key factors such as socioeconomic details, number of siblings and age of mother, a prospective study is needed. Further to this, a multicentre prospective study could be performed to give comparable data and assess different aetiological factors for burns in this group and the effectiveness of local and national preventative strategies. The types and demographic characteristics of burn damage may differ
Conflict of interest
We the authors have no conflict of interest to declare and that no funding had been provided for the duration of the study.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the team at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, the library staff at Morriston hospital and my husband Angus Ruddle.
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Cited by (22)
Craniofacial and neck burns in the pediatric population
2020, BurnsCitation Excerpt :Although these physiological attributes describe the complexity of managing burn wounds in all children, they are especially magnified in the infant population. In the past, it was believed that children under age 3 were most prone to burns, but more recent research has demonstrated infants aged 1 year and under to be the more likely affected [21,22]. In accordance, our data shows that this may also be correlated with increased injury severity.
Infant burns: A single institution retrospective review
2019, BurnsCitation Excerpt :Less than 10% of the infants had burns greater than 20% TBSA. Comparing the literature, the range of TBSA varied from 0.5–90% TBSA with an associated mortality of 0–43.5%, predominantly amongst the neonates [3,5,16,17,21,22,28]. Seventy two percent of infants were treated with either topical antiseptics until healed and 29% underwent surgery.
Outpatient treated burns in infants younger than 1 year in Helsinki during 2005-2009
2014, BurnsCitation Excerpt :This corresponds well with the earlier studies [6,19,20]. Children aged 9–12 months were at the highest risk for severe injury in this study, in line with previous studies [19,21]. In this study, this was evidenced both by the largest number of patients in this group and the largest mean %TBSA.