Burns caused by carburetors

During a 10-year period 4645 patients were admitted to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center with acute burns. Of these, 83 (1.79%) were caused by carburetor-related accidents. There were 79 males and 4 females. Ages ranged from 10 to 72 years. Burn size ranged from 1 to 97.5% (mean, 12.3%). There was one death in the group. Eighteen patients required only topical care; 65 patients required a total of 108 operations for debridement and grafting. Length of stay ranged from 1 to 63 days (mean, 11 days). The mechanism of injury was usually the same; in 81 cases the accident occurred while someone was pouring gasoline into a carburetor. In 63 cases the vehicle was an automobile or pickup truck. Explosions resulted in 12 instances; in 65 instances fires were started. These injuries are serious, expensive, fairly common, and may be life threatening. Proper handling of gasoline is stressed. Newer vehicles have fuel injector systems, which may gradually eliminate the problem over time, because pouring gasoline is not required.