Epidemiology and the survival rate of burn-related injuries in Iran: a registry-based study

Burns are considered an important preventable fraction of injuries in low and middle-income countries, and are still a leading cause of death in Iran. This study investigates features of burns in Sina Hospital's Burn Centre in East Azerbaijan Province in order to calculate survival and mortality rates as well as factors affecting mortality in this centre. In this cross-sectional study, demographic characteristics of patients such as age, sex, cause of burns, type of burns, length of stay (LOS) in the hospital, total body surface area (TBSA), anatomic distribution of burn, mortality rate and final status of patients at the time of discharge from hospital (recovery, death) were investigated. The total mortality rate was 6.84%. Hot liquid burns and gas cylinder explosion burns were among the most common. Burns on multiple regions of the body (45.9%) and pelvic and lower limb burns (22%) constituted the next most common injury. In the TBSA index, compared to reference categories (extent of burn less than 50 percent), the categories of 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89 and over 90 percent indicated lowest survival based on the Log-Rank test. Hazard ratio for burns greater than 10% was 15.33 fold. Total body surface area burned of over 10% constantly increases the instantaneous risk of mortality therefore there is a need to enhance the quality of care provided to burn victims.