Elderly and burn injuries: a ten-year analysis of 612 patients
Elderly and burn injuries: a ten-year analysis of 612 patients
Zahra Haghani Dogahe,1Mohammadreza Mobayen,2,*
1. Burn and Reconstructive Medicine Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan, Iran 2. Burn and Reconstructive Medicine Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan, Iran
Introduction: With all the progress made in geriatric medicine, we expected to have a growing population of elderly soon. With burn injuries, as one of the most common unpredictable injuries to the elderly, it is essential to clarify the epidemiological pattern and factors related to worse outcomes in geriatric burn patients. We aimed to investigate burn characteristics in the elderly in Guilan province, IRAN, in ten years.
Methods: In this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis of burn patients aging 60yrs and over in Velayat Burn Center between 2010 and 2020. The data collected from the hospital information system included age, sex, marital state, occupation, residency, season and month of the incident, place of incident, total body surface area (TBSA), burn degree, cause of the burn, anatomical site of the injury, pre-injury morbidities, surgical managements, length of hospital stay and mortality.
Results: Among 612 patients, the mean age was 72.20±8.94 years. The female to male ratio was 1.14:1 with a total of 53.3% female burn patients. 94.90% of patients lived with family members. 59.3% lived in urban areas. Most of the burn injuries happened during winter and summer. 82.5% happened indoors. The mean total body surface area (TBSA) was 19.70±22.13%. The most common causes were flames (50%) and scald (44.3%). The total length of hospital stay (LOS) was 6.14±6.27 days. The overall mortality rate was 15%. About 73.4% of our patients had a history of an age-related pre-injury medical condition, mostly cardiovascular diseases. In expired patients, the most common burn agent was flames (83.7%), and the mean TBSA was 55.48±28.79%. Factors related to longer hospital stay were age (p-value=0.001), TBSA (p=0.000), and length of hospital stay (p=0.000).
Conclusion: We concluded that most of the burn injuries among the geriatric population happen indoors, during the first hours of the day, and on the first day of the week, making it essential to establish special prevention programs suiting these situations. On the other hand, with the increased life expectancy and the unpredictable nature of burn injuries, it is essential to identify risk factors and establish prevention programs for the elderly. With lowering the movement of rural inhabitants to urban areas, improving the safety of apartments and nursing homes, educating nurses and parents about the dangers of children spending time alone with their grandparents, and warning the health care system about the threats for diabetic patients and patients with heart conditions it would be possible to lower the incidence and overall mortality of burn injuries in the elderly.