Changing trends of an endemic trauma

The incidence of severe burn is extremely high in the Low and Middle Income Countries with an estimated 90% of the world incidence of which 50% is in South East Asia. Through an earlier analysis of 11,196 burn admission over 8 years (1993-2000--Phase I) to our burn unit we established the endemic nature of the injury [Ahuja RB, Bhattacharya S. An analysis of 11,196 burn admissions and evaluation of conservative management techniques. Burns 2002;28:555-61]. A continued analysis of 5566 burn admissions over the next 7 years (2001-2007--Phase II) and its comparison with the Phase I reveals a significant change in the epidemiological profile. The average yearly admissions have fallen by 43.14%, from 1399.5 patients in Phase I to 795.14 patients in Phase II. This fall in average yearly admissions is predominant in the age group 16-35 years (52.61% decline) and 36-55 years (46.51% decline). The overall female to male ratio has also changed from 1.26:1 to 0.91:1. However, the overall mean %TBSA burn has reduced only mildly from 49.12% TBSA in Phase I to 44.39% in Phase II. During Phase II there was also a significant decline of 46.93% and 56.25% in the yearly admission of flame and scald burn respectively. Non-intentional incidents still remain the main mode of injury accounting for 87.12% in Phase I and 89.89% in Phase II. But, the yearly admissions of non-intentional burns fell from 1219.25 in Phase I to 714.71 in Phase II, which is a significant drop of 41.38%. Kitchen continues to dominate as the main location for flame incidents, but the yearly admission rate from kitchen accidents dropped from 897.5 patients in Phase I to 368.43 patients in Phase II. At the same time, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) leaks which accounted for only 0.72% of all kitchen accidents in Phase I rose to 10.74% in Phase II. Another redeeming feature is the reduction in overall mortality from 51.8% in Phase I to 40.20% in Phase II. Interestingly, a very significant negative correlation exists (being significant at 0.01 level--2 tailed) between burn admissions and the yearly per-capita income of Delhi, from 1993 to 2005, to prove that the incidence and profile of burns directly reflects the economic development of the society. We see this as the first long term study from a burn unit of a developing country to directly reflect this association of burn incidence and its changing profile with economic prosperity.