Epidemiological Study of Hospitalized Burn Patients in a Burn Care Unit of Bangladesh

Introduction: The epidemiology of hospitalized burn victims have providedimportant informationsin most South Asian countries, accept from Bangladesh. Where national injury surveillance is absent, analysis of hospitalized data can be useful for planning prevention strategies.

Objective: This study is aimed to analyze epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized acute burn patient.

Methods: Burn patients’ data including flames, scalds and electrical burn were obtained through regularly collected records maintaining by the burn care unit of Rangpur Medical College Hospital, a regional tertiary hospital located in Northern Bangladesh. All patients were attending both indoor and outdoor sustaining acute burn between January 2023 and December 2023 was included in the analysis. This is a retrospective study and data were collected from hospital registers. Standard statistical calculations such mean, median and standard deviation (SD) were calculated where applicable. P-value of <.05 were considered as statistically significant level.

Results: A total of 530 burn patients with median age of 24 years were admitted in the study period.There were 354 females and 176 males with a ratio of 1.5:1. Majority of female were housewife (45.4%) and had burn 16-30% total body surface areas (p<0.01). Age-distribution of patients showed a peak between 18-44 years (54.2%) followed by 0-17years age group (28.4%). Most burn injuries were 3rd degree followed by 2nd degree. Flame burns were leading type of burn followed by scalds. Among the flame burn, it was mostly associated with clothing (85.1%), in female (90.6%), in male (66.1%). Domestic burns (87.8%) were more than the working place (11.9%). Among the causes, fire camp (44.6%) in winter was the key factor, cooking with wood (14.1%), electrical burns (7.6%) played significant role in burn. Only in a single month January, 40% of burns occurred. Overall, mortality rate was 7.5% (female 24 cases and male 10 cases) among the patients with median age of 32.1 years. Patients died from 18% TBSA and onward.

Conclusions: Young females, women roles in households and indoor environment were major epidemiological characteristics of burn injuries among hospitalized patients, largely caused by fire and flames. High burn severity and case fatality by low level of burn injury (TBSA) demand further burn care improvement, preventive measures, and first aids education in lower economic settings, where Bangladesh is an example.