Thermal injury in the elderly. The limited need for nursing home care

Although it appears that survival has been increased and hospital stays have been decreased in elderly patients with burn injuries, limited information is available on the functional status of these patients at the time of discharge from the hospital. Because this information is necessary to assess more fully the success or failure of current modes of therapy, we have reviewed the records of 99 surviving patients with burn injuries over the age of 55 years. These patients had a mean age 71.8 years and a mean +/- SD burn size of 8.9% +/- 8.6%, with 36 patients having burns over greater than 10% of body surface area and 14 patients having burns over greater than 20%. The mean hospital stay of these patients was 16.9 days, and 75% of the patients required surgery to heal the burn wounds. Since just five (5%) of the 99 patients required nursing home placement at discharge, it appears that the majority of elderly patients with burn injuries recover sufficiently from the injuries to resume their preinjury life-style.