Epidemiology of burn injuries presenting to North Carolina emergency departments in 2006-2007

Approximately 600,000 burns present to Emergency Departments each year in the United States, yet there is little systematic or evidence-based training of Emergency Physicians in acute burn management. We retrospectively accessed the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT) database to identify all thermal burns and electrical injuries with associated thermal burns presenting to 92% of North Carolina Emergency Departments over a 1-year period.

10,501 patients met inclusion criteria, 0.3% of all state-wide reported ED visits. Ninety-two percent of burn visits were managed exclusively by Emergency Physicians without acute intervention by burn specialists, including 87% of first degree, 82% of second degree, and 53% of third degree injuries. Only 4.3% were admitted; 4.3% were transferred to another institution. Fifty-five percent were male; 33% were aged 25-44 and 33% presented on weekends.

This is the first state-wide study of burn injury and identifies Emergency Physicians as the major providers of acute burn care. Ninety-two percent of 10,501 burn visits, including the majority of severe injuries, were managed exclusively by Emergency Physicians. This supports a need for improved, evidence-based training of Emergency Physicians in the acute management of burns of all types.