[Epidemiological investigation on 1 946 hospitalized pediatric patients with burns]

Objective: To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized pediatric patients with burns and explore the prevention and treatment strategy of pediatric burns. Methods: Medical records of pediatric burn patients hospitalized in multiple departments of Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from January 2012 to December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Data including gender, age, residence, ways of paying, total burn area, burn severity, cause, time, and place of burns, prehospital treatment ways, clinical outcome, length of hospital stay were collected and processed with chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and Bonferroni correction. The factors which influence wound healing were processed with multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: (1) A total of 1 946 pediatric burn patients with complete medical records were hospitalized in Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University during the 5 years, with 1 127 boys (57.91%), which were more than 819 girls (42.09%). Pediatric patients≤3 years old were with the highest incidence of burns of 87.15% (1 696/1 946). There was no significantly statistical difference in gender composition ratio among pediatric patients of different ages (χ²=2.294, P= 0.318). (2) The residence of 1 536 pediatric patients (78.93%) were in town, and most of them used urban resident essential medical insurance for medical cost. Most of the pediatric patients living in rural areas paid the medical cost at their own expense. There was significantly statistical difference in way of paying between pediatric patients living in urban and those in rural areas (χ²=658.324, P<0.05). (3) The pediatric patients with total burn surface area≥5% total body surface area (TBSA) and<15% TBSA were the most (1 200 cases, accounting for 61.66%). The pediatric patients with moderate burns were the most (1 225 cases, accounting for 62.95%), followed by mild burns (494 cases, accounting for 25.39%), severe burns (124 cases, accounting for 6.37%), and extremely severe burns (46 cases, accounting for 2.36%). (4) The pediatric patients with scald caused by hot water were the most (1 801 cases, accounting for 92.55%), followed by flame burns (69 cases, accounting for 3.55%), chemical burns (44 cases, accounting for 2.26%), and electrical burns (32 cases, accounting for 1.64%). There was significantly statistical difference in cause of injury among pediatric patients of different ages (χ²=85.471, P<0.05). (5) The incidence of burns of pediatric patients in Spring was 27.95% (544/1 946), which was slightly higher than those in other seasons. There was significantly statistical difference in the burn season among pediatric patients admitted to the hospital in different years (χ²= 23.172, P< 0.05). As to burn place, most of burns of pediatric patients happened at home (1 776 cases, accounting for 91.26%). (6) There was significantly statistical difference in clinical outcome among pediatric patients with different prehospital treatments (H=16.005, P<0.05). There was significantly statistical difference in clinical outcome between pediatric patients with reasonable prehospital treatments and those with unreasonable prehospital treatments (H=-64.990, P<0.05), and between pediatric patients with reasonable prehospital treatments and those without any treatment (H=-74.775, P<0.05). There was no significantly statistical difference in clinical outcome between pediatric patients with unreasonable prehospital treatments and those without any prehospital treatment (H=-9.785, P>0.05). (7) The median of length of hospital stay of pediatric patients was 8 days. The pediatric patients with length of hospital stay≤7 days were the most (834 cases, accounting for 42.86%), and the pediatric patients with length of hospital stay>30 days were the least (39 cases, accounting for 2.00%). (8) The way of prehospital treatment and cause of injury were independent risk factors influencing wound healing (χ²=7.946, 12.977, P<0.05). With no prehospital treatment as benchmark, reasonable prehospital treatments promoted wound healing (odds ratio=1.662, 95% confidence interval=1.129-2.447, P<0.05). With chemical burns as benchmark, electrical burn wounds were harder to heal (odds ratio=0.144, 95% confidence interval=0.028-0.734, P<0.05). Conclusions: Pediatric burn patients hospitalized in Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were mainly boys≤3 years old with moderate scald caused by hot water at home in urban areas. Timely and reasonable prehospital treatments are beneficial to wound healing.