Epidemiological Investigation of Elderly Patients with Severe Burns at a Major Burn Center in Southwest China

Abstract

Background: The treatment of elderly patients with severe burns is difficult and the mortality rate is high. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological features of elderly patients with severe burns. Material/Methods: Data from 109 elderly patients with severe burns between January 2009 and December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic data, clinical characteristics, treatments, and outcomes were statistically analyzed. Results: Among the 109 elderly patients with severe burns, the male-to-female ratio was 1.73: 1.0. The median age of the elderly patients was 67 years, and the median total body surface area (TBSA) burned was 42%. Notably, 67.9% of burns occurred at home and most frequently occurred in summer (38.5%) and winter (28.4%); flame and flash burns predominated (83.4%). The incidence of inhalation injury was 35.8%, and pre-existing comorbidities were observed in approximately 51.4% of the patients. The median length of stay in the hospital per TBSA burned was 0.4 days. The mortality rate in the elderly patients was 24.8%, and the mortality rates in the ³70% TBSA group, inhalation injury group, and patients with 3 or more pre-existing comorbidities were significantly higher than in the other groups. The risk of death increased with an increase in the number of pre-existing comorbidities (odds ratio: 2.222; 95% confidence interval: 1.174-4.205). Conclusions: At a major burn center in Southwest China, the incidence and mortality of elderly patients with severe burns displayed no downward trend. There are etiological characteristics of these age groups that should be considered for prevention. Meanwhile, multidisciplinary treatment in a hospital and an increase in the social support for the elderly population might improve outcomes.

Elderly And Burn Injuries: A Ten-Year Analysis of 612 Patients

“…In our study, the dominant burn agent was ames _inconsistent with some studies (4,20,21) and similar to some others (12,22)_ but in survivors, the most common agent was scald that results from the slight dominancy of women, indoor accidents, and age-related medical conditions of the elderly like reduced reaction time, visual impairments, and a limited range of motions. Similar to previous studies (23)(24)(25), inhalation injury was a risk factor for poor prognosis in the elderly.…”

Burn Injury Characteristics and Outcomes among Hospitalized Patients in Tertiary Burn Unit

“…The finding of this study reveals that males are predominantly affected as compared to females but this does not reach the significant statistical difference this finding does not agree with the findings of other researchers [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] while other study reported a similar finding in gender composition ratio [29] but our finding disagrees with the findings of other researchers who found that females were suffered burn injuries significantly more than males [30][31][32] . Regarding age of patients,this study clarifies that the vast majority of the victims are below 30 years of age and mainly children below ten years, this result is similar to result reported by other studies [26,33] and this explain why that most of the burn victims were male in gender due to that the boys are more susceptible to burn accidents because they are more active than the girls.…”

Fluid resuscitation based on pulse contour cardiac output monitoring is associated with improved prognosis in adult severe burn patients: a retrospective cohort study

“…This study further confirmed the superiority and reliability of PCCO monitoring compared with traditional monitoring. Nowadays, the mortality of severe burns patients worldwide is still at a relatively high level, and has been reported as ranging between 12.2% and 47.6% (3,21,22). As our burns center has many years of experience in severe burns diagnosis and treatment, the mortality is maintained at a relatively low level, and in this study, the overall mortality of enrolled patients was 3.7% in the control group and 4.9% in the study group, respectively.…”