[Burns caused by paint thinner]

Flame deriving from paint thinner is not a rare cause of burns in Morocco and we thus considered it useful to conduct an epidemiological survey of paint thinner flame burns (PTFB) in the National Burns Centre (NBC) in the Ibn-Rochd University Hospital Centre in Casablanca, Morocco. The research covered the 10-month period from September 2007 to June 2008.The aim of our work was to present the characteristic features of such burns in order to prevent them by increasing public knowledge regarding the risks involved in using paint thinner, i.e. burns in particular. During the period in question, we colligated 17 cases of PTFB out of a total number of 356 patients admitted to the NBC for acute burns of all aetiologies. The patients' average was 32 yr and they were nearly all male (16 men/1 woman), with past histories of drug addiction and/or delinquency. They were all of low-level socioeconomic class and lived mainly in shanty towns. The burn was often secondary to street violence (92% of the cases).The mean burn surface area was 23% and the burns were often deep and located mainly in the upper limbs and the trunk.