Burn patients in Portugal: analysis of 14,797 cases during 1993-1999

The incidence and cause of burns in Portugal are unknown. The present study seeks to collect these data as a basis for future studies in prevention and development of treatment regimes. The data used in this work was obtained from the registries existing in The Direcção Geral de Saúde (General Health Administration) and relates to burn patients admitted to 91 Portuguese hospitals--that serve all the territory--during the period of 1993-1999. All patients selected had at least one diagnosis of burn (ICD-9: 94.###) among all the diagnoses motivating an admission. A total of 14,797 burn patients were obtained. Among all the patients admitted to hospitals, 8731 (59.0%) were male and 6066 (41.0%) were female, with a male/female ratio of 1.44:1. The mean length of in-hospital stay was 15.5+/-21.0 days. Throughout this period, 553 (3.7%) patients died in Portuguese hospitals as a result of burn injury. There were no significant differences in the number of deaths in each year, P=0.45, in contrast to the decrease of burn mortality rates reported in other studies. It is likely that the reason for this situation is the lack of investment in the last years in this area and the delay in opening new Burn Centres.