The Global Burn Registry: A Work in Progress.

Area of Science:

• Global health
• Burn injury epidemiology
• Trauma care

Background:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) established the Global Burn Registry (GBR) in 2018 to enhance understanding of burn injuries worldwide.
• Early data from the GBR provide insights into burn care disparities between high-resource and low-resource settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and analyze early findings from the Global Burn Registry (GBR).
• To compare burn injury characteristics, risk factors, and outcomes between low-resource (LR) and high-resource (HR) countries.

Main Methods:

• Data from the GBR (accessed January 5, 2020) were analyzed, categorizing cases into LR (low-income and low-middle-income countries) and HR (high-income and upper-middle-income countries) groups.
• Statistical analyses included logistic regression to identify mortality risk factors and calculation of the Revised Baux Score (RBS) and Lethal Area 50% (LA50).

Main Results:

• The GBR contained 4307 cases from 17 countries; 32% were from LR countries.
• LR patients had larger Total Burn Surface Area (TBSA) burns (30.5% vs 19.8%), more flame injuries, and higher case fatality rates (31.9% vs 9.4%) compared to HR patients.
• Low resource settings were an independent risk factor for death (OR 4.2), and the LA50 was significantly lower in LR countries across most age groups.

Conclusions:

• The GBR highlights significant disparities in burn care, with worse outcomes in low-resource settings.
• Survival rates in HR countries are comparable to North American data, but opportunities for improvement are greatest in LR countries.
• Increased participation from burn centers in LR countries and potential new innovations are needed to improve global burn care equity.