Burn Injuries in Children

Abstract

Burn injury is one of the main medical and socio-economic problems facing societies throughout the world, the number of casualties and causes varying from country to country (Dobrokovsky, 1984; Haberal, 1987a). At our Centre, approximately 100 patients are admitted due to burn injury each year. The majority of these burn injury victims are children. The frequency of burn injury is fairly high in almost every country but fortunately the majority of burns range only minor to moderate (Haberal, 1987b; McDougal, 1978). However, the subject of burn injury still remains a world-wide concern for physicians and health care personnel, as well as for the victim, from a psychosocial, economic and emotional perspective. It is therefore mandatory that burn treatment should be handled by well organized prevention and rehabilitation teams and collective education programmes on a national and international basis. This study portrays the treatment of 512 children admitted to our Centre during an 11-year period.