[Criteria for burn severity. Epidemiology. prevention, organization of management]

Total body surface area burned and deep of the skin injury are the main determinants of the burn severity. Other factors like age of the patient, pathological conditions, pulmonary injury by smoke inhalation, wound localizations play also a major role. 500,000 cases of burn injuries occurred each year in France. Ten hundred are hospitalized among witch 3,000 are hospitalized in burn units. Burns by flames are the most common in adult severely burned patients. In children, for all type of injuries, and in adult patients suffering of light or medium injuries, hot liquids are the most frequent encountered agents. Obviously, prevention programs should markedly decrease the occurrence of burn injuries. Regulation modifications are probably more potent than information campaigns. There is 25 burn units in France. Unfortunately, these units take care of less than one third of all the burned hospitalized patients. The organization of a national network binding regional burn centers and local specialized units would probably improve the efficiency of burn therapy in our country.