Long hair, smoking, and deep facial burns

The purpose of this article is to describe deep facial burn injuries by cigarette lighters in longhaired adults and to report our experience in their treatment. Eight consecutive cigarette lighter burn victims are treated in the Helsinki Burn Center in the year 2006. Seven of the patients were women; their mean age was 50 years. All were under the influence of alcohol at the time of injury. The mean burnt area was 3.5% TBSA. The burnt areas were primarily forehead, cheek, and ipsilateral ear. After a conservative treatment, all the patients underwent an operation, whereby the nonhealing burns were excised and covered with autologous split thickness skin grafts. Postoperative period was uneventful in all the patients. Besides having severe detrimental effects on general health status and wound healing, smoking is the leading cause of residential and total fire deaths worldwide. The patients in this article suffered deep facial burns because of cigarette lighters.