A Single Institution's Recent Experience With Pediatric Hand Burns.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric surgery
• Burn management
• Wound care

Background:

• Children's susceptibility to hand burns due to curiosity and physiological factors.
• Hand burns represent a significant portion of pediatric burn injuries.
• Focus on surgical management for severe pediatric hand burns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the experience of managing pediatric hand burns requiring surgical intervention.
• To analyze demographics, injury mechanisms, and outcomes of surgical cases.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of standardized wound care protocols.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of pediatric patients with hand burns (2016-2020).
• Data collection on demographics, injury mechanisms, and initial wound management.
• Detailed analysis of patients undergoing skin grafting, including operative and short-term outcomes.

Main Results:

• 2100 out of 3715 (56.5%) pediatric burn patients had hand burns.
• 123 patients (5.8%) required skin grafting, with an average delay of 11.7 days.
• Surgical complications were low: 4.1% incomplete graft take, 0.8% postoperative infection.

Conclusions:

• Pediatric hand burns are a frequent occurrence.
• A multidisciplinary approach with standardized care and effective interventions promotes healing.
• Approximately 95% of pediatric hand burns achieve spontaneous healing or successful surgical outcomes.