[Paediatric head and neck burns sequelae]

The skin is the body's protective barrier and is very much exposed to assaults and thus to burns. The aim of this work is to consider the special features of cervicofacial burns sequelae in children in a sub-Saharan environment and to review their management. This retrospective study, performed in the Department of Paediatric Surgery at Aristide Le Dantec Teaching Hospital in Dakar (Senegal), examined 27 patient files dating between May 2001 and April 2008. The children’s average age at first visit was 6.7 years and the m:f sex ratio was 1.7:1. The sequelae were topographically distributed as follows: face (66.7%), neck (29.6%), scalp (11.1%). Regarding the type of sequelae observed, adhesions predominated (33.3%), followed by keloid or hypertrophic scars (25.9%), eyelid ectropions (18.5%), scalp alopecias (11.1%), chronic ulcerations (7.4%), and discolorations (3.7%).Surgical treatment was used in 55.7% of the cases: Z-plasty, followed or not followed by skin graft for adhesion treatment, as well as adhesion lysis followed by grafting for eyelid ectropion treatment. The surgical morbidity rate was 20% and no mortality was reported. Keloid scars were treated medically with intralesional corticosteroid injections. Apart from the emergency situation, cervicofacial burns in children lead to severe aesthetic and functional damage. Any improvement in prognosis in such burns depends on improvements in the quality of initial care and on raising parents' awareness of accidents in the home.