In 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières opened the Arche Kigobe Trauma Centre in Bujumbura, Burundi, to treat victims of violence, and in 2016 extended the admission criteria to burns, without a specialised unit to treat these.

To study the factors associated with an unfavourable outcome (death, referrals and discharges against medical advice) in burn patients hospitalised at this centre.

This is a retrospective descriptive and analytical study of hospitalised burn patients.

From 2016 to 2020, 477 patients were hospitalised at the Centre for burns, of whom 301 (63%) were less than 5 years old, 169 (35%) were female, and 48 (10%) had an unfavourable outcome. Anaemia (OR 11, 95% CI 2.7-48), infection (OR 11, 95% CI 5.7-22), and smoke inhalation (OR 28, 95% CI 7-111) were among the main factors associated with an unfavourable outcome.

To minimise adverse outcomes related to inhalation and infection in burn patients, a septic isolation circuit, training, a bacteriology service and continuous positive airway pressure could be implemented even in resource-limited settings.