Shiwani Thakur1, Irshad Ahmad2, Yaser Hussain Wani3, Naseer Awan4, Zuneera Banoo5, Neha Sharma6, Safoora Wani7, Adan Iqbal8
BACKGROUND
The skin is the largest organ of our body with a complex function. Burn injuries
result in damage to the skin by electrical, chemical, thermal or radiation energies
or a combination of them, by far the most common being the thermal injuries.
However, most burn injuries are preventable and hence need preventive
strategies. Outcome is dependent on various factors. The focus of this study is to
provide an overview of various factors and clinical presentation of burn injury and
their correlation of these various factors with outcome of burn injury.
METHODS
A retrospective facility-based document review analytical study was conducted on
215 patients admitted in the emergency (burn ward) department of Government
Medical College and Hospital, Srinagar, Kashmir from September 2019 to
September 2020.
RESULTS
In our study, out of total 215 hospitalized burn patients, 101 (47 %) were female
and 114 (53 %) were males. In 103 (47.9 %) patients, burn injury was caused by
scald burn, kangri burn was present in 3 (1.4 %) patients; 207 (96.3 %) patients
had accidental burns and 8 (3.7 %) patients had suicidal burn injuries; 181 (84.2
%) had received good pre-hospital intervention; 165 (76.7 %) patients were
discharged without complications. Various parameters – degree of burn, cause of
burn, nature of burn, nutritional status and antibiotic coverage show statistical
significance with P-value < 0.05.
CONCLUSIONS
Kashmir is a valley surrounded by mountains, has cold weather for about threequarters
of year. People here are more prone to burn injuries especially thermal
injuries. Outcome of burn injuries is better for lesser degree of burns and mortality
increases with severe degree of burns. Patients without complications, patients
with good nutritional status at presentation and patients with proper antibiotic
coverage had good outcome.
