[The epidemiology of serious burn injuries in Iceland 1988-1992.]

Due to widespread access to hot water in Iceland it has been suspected that the incidence of burn injury is higher compared to other countries. The epidemiology of severe burn injury needing hospitalization was studied.

The files of all patients who were diagnosed with burn injury and admitted to the four largest community hospitals in Iceland were retrospectively reviewed. Only those 266 patients admitted primarly because of the burn injury were included. The incidence of severe burn injury needing hospitalization was 20.5/100.000/year.

Scald burns were most common and children younger than five years old were more prone to such burns than older patients. Tap-water burns are considerable more common in Iceland compared to other countries. In the relatively few hot spring water burns, 72.8% of the victims were foreign tourists. The main findings are that one third of all severe burns needing hospitalization in Iceland occur in children younger than five years old. The incidence of burns seems to be similar to reported series. More than half of all burns needing hospitalization in Iceland are scald burns and the incidence of burns due to tap water is higher in this country than elsewhere.

We conclude that it should be possible to reduce the risk of severe burn injuries in Iceland through education campaigns and also by legislating maximum temperature of the tap-water at 52-54 degrees C.