Abstract
Background
Though sustaining burn injury requiring hospital admission is not too common, there are patients who happen to return to the burn unit with a new injury. Our aim was to characterise the repeatedly burned patients and their cases. The question was whether we can detect an objective reason for this higher susceptibility for burn injuries.
Methods
Data of twice- or more times-burned patients (group A) were compared to a randomly chosen group of normal-burned patients (group B) treated at the burn unit of the Department of Dermatology, Debrecen University.
Results
Alcohol consumption was found in 12 of 35 cases (34 %) in group A, and in 6 of 168 cases in group B (3.6 %; p < 0.001). In 25 of 35 cases, surgery was neeeded because of deep burns (71 %), and this ratio was 44 % in the control (B) group, in 74 from 168 cases (p = 0.005). Average length of hospital stay was 13.43 days (95 % CI 11.03–15.83) in group A and 8.18 days (95 % CI 7.27–9.1) in group B (p < 0.001). Neurological disease—mostly epilepsy—was found in 7 cases of 35 in group A (20 %), whereas in 14 cases of 168 in group B (8.3 %; p = 0.061).
Conclusions
Our data show that among repetitively burned patients, there are more alcohol abusers, more patients with deep burns who need surgery and that their average stay in the hospital is longer. These patients also have a neurologic illness (epilepsy) more frequently, although this difference was not statistically significant.
Level of Evidence: Level IV, risk/prognostic study
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Patients gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study were omitted.
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Péter, Z., Mező, I., Varga, J. et al. Repetitive burn victims are burned more seriously and have more comorbidities. Eur J Plast Surg 37, 543–546 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-014-0966-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-014-0966-0