Syed Zafar Mehdi, Jalal Uddin Akber, Mazhar Nizam, Arshad Hamid Khan, Veena Kumari, Ahmed Raheem Buksh.
Duration of Hospital Stay in Infantile Burn: A Retrospective Study Conducted at Tertiary Care Hospital.
Ann Abbasi Shaheed Hosp Karachi Med Dent Coll Jan ;20(2):142-7.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the duration of hospital stay in different types of infantile burn. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at the plastic surgery, burn unit of Patel hospital during the period of 7 years from January 2007 to December 2013. Children ageing one year or less at the time of admission with any type of burn were included in the study and those above one year were excluded. The patients medical records were obtained from medical record department. SPSS 21 version was used for statistical analysis. Data description is given by percentage.Standard deviation and central tendency (medians and means)were taken as measures of variability. For comparison Chi square test was used. P value less than 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: Total 789 paediatric burn patients were admitted in Patel Hospital during January 2007 to December 2013, in which 106 were infants. Infants having scald burn were 83 (78.3%), fire burn 21 (19.8%) and chemical burn 2 (1.9%). Male to female ratio was 1.5:1. Out of these 106 infants, 74 (70%) were hospitalized for 1 - 10 days, 18 (16.9%) were hospitalized for 11 - 20 days, 6 (5.6%) and 8 (7.5%) infants were hospitalized for 21 - 30 days and more than 30 days respectively. Most of the infants with different types of burn injuries remained under treatment between 1 - 10 days. Infants with scald, fire and chemical burn were 59 (71.1%), 14 (66.7%), and 1 (50%) respectively and remained under treatment at hospital between 1 - 10 days. It was observed that duration of stay was prolonged for infants with fire burn as compared to those with scald burn, if total body surface area (TBSA) was more than 10%. Infants with both second and third degree of fire burn (66.6%) had length of stay more than 20 days as compared to (27.3%) of scald burn. The length of stay was affected mostly in those infants who had secondary wound infections. Out of 106 infants, 28 (26.4%) had growth of organisms in wound cultures. In 106 infants, 95 (89.6%) were discharged, 2 (1.9%) left against medical advice (LAMA) and 9(8.5%) expired. Among these 6 (66.6%) of them expired due to scald burn and 3 (33.3%) expired due to fire burn. Most of the infants 5 (55.5%) expired within 5 days due to more than 40% of their TBSA involved and having third degree burn. Conclusion: We have seen through this study that infants with less than 10% of their TBSA involved were hospitalized for less than 10 days due to scald, fire or chemical burn. However in fire burn the duration of stay was prolonged as compared to scald burn if TBSA was more than 10% or having both second and third degree burn.The length of stay is also affected for those infants who developed secondary bacterial wound infections. Infants who had more than 40% of their TBSA involved and had third degree burn, survived for less than 5 days.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com