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Published on: August 23, 2022
Do burns increase the severity of terror injuries?
Kobi Peleg1, Alon Liran, Ariel Tessone
1National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
Terror attack victims with burns experience more severe injuries and longer hospital stays, but burns do not increase mortality rates. This study compares terror-related burns to other trauma cases.
Area of Science:
- Trauma surgery
- Burn care
- Public health
Background:
- The frequency of explosive and suicide bombings has increased since October 2000, altering the nature of terror attacks.
- Previous research indicated a rise in thermal injuries, but the increase in burn incidence among terror victims was proportional to that in all trauma victims.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare injury severity and outcomes (mortality rates) in terror victims with and without burn injuries.
- To compare terror-attack related burns with non-terror-attack related burns regarding injury severity and outcomes.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of data from the Israeli National Trauma Registry (1997-2003) for 219 terror-related burn patients, 2228 terror patients without burns, and 6546 non-terror burn patients.
- Injury severity assessed using the Injury Severity Score (ISS).
- Burn severity measured by total body surface area percentage; outcomes assessed by Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission rates, hospitalization length, and in-hospital mortality.
Main Results:
- Terror/burn patients had a significantly higher ISS and more accompanying injuries (87.2%) compared to non-terror burns (10.4%).
- Terror/burn patients showed higher ICU admission rates (49.8%) and longer hospital stays (18.5 days) than non-terror burns (11.9% ICU, 11.1 days) and terror/no-burn patients (23.8% ICU, 9.5 days).
- In-hospital mortality rates were similar across groups: 3.4% for non-terror burns, 6.4% for terror/burns, and 6.6% for terror/no-burns.
Conclusions:
- Terror attack injuries with burns present with higher severity, more complex injuries, increased ICU admissions, and longer hospitalizations compared to non-burn terror injuries and non-terror burns.
- While terror-related burns lead to more severe presentations and resource utilization, the presence of burns does not significantly impact in-hospital mortality rates.
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