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Updated: Jul 10, 2025
Author Spotlight: A Multi-Depth Porcine Model for Comprehensive Study of Burn Injuries and Healing Processes
Published on: February 23, 2024
Minority pediatric burn survivors undergo more burn operations: A single center's five-year experience
Paul Won1, Deborah Choe1, Laura H Gomez2
1Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Insights
Minority children experience more accidental burn injuries, requiring more surgery like skin grafts and laser treatments compared to White children. This highlights disparities in pediatric burn care and outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Trauma
- Burn Surgery
- Health Disparities
Background:
- Burn injuries are a major cause of trauma, disproportionately affecting minority populations in the US.
- Existing research on burn injury disparities focuses mainly on adults, with limited data on pediatric patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize burn injuries, inpatient treatments, and post-discharge outcomes in minority pediatric burn patients.
- To investigate potential disparities in surgical management and readmissions for pediatric burn care.
Main Methods:
- A single-institution retrospective chart review of pediatric burn admissions from July 2016 to July 2021.
- Data collected included demographics, injury details, inpatient care, and post-discharge outcomes.
- Univariate analysis was used to compare outcomes between minority and White patients.
Main Results:
- Minority pediatric patients were more likely to sustain accidental and inhalational burn injuries.
- Minority patients underwent significantly more surgical management, including skin grafting (p < 0.01).
- Post-discharge, minority patients received more laser treatments (p < 0.01) compared to White patients.
Conclusions:
- Minority pediatric patients face higher risks for non-intentional burns and require more intensive surgical interventions like skin grafting and laser therapy.
- There is a need to improve physical and psychosocial outcomes for this underserved pediatric population.
- Addressing disparities in pediatric burn care is crucial for equitable health outcomes.
Abstract:
Burn injuries remain a significant source of trauma in the United States and disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities. Although disparities are well documented in adults, less is known regarding those in pediatric populations. To address this gap in literature, we aim to better characterize burn injuries, inpatient treatments, and post-discharge outcomes in minority pediatric burn patients. We hypothesize minority patients undergo more surgery and re-admissions than non-minority patients for burn care. This is a single institution retrospective chart review of pediatric patient admissions with burn injuries from July 1st, 2016 to July 1st, 2021. Demographics, details of injury, inpatient surgical and non-surgical care, and post-discharge outcomes were collected. Patients identifying as Hispanic/Latino, Black, and Asian were coded as minority patients. Univariate analysis was utilized. A total of 332 patients with average age of 4.9 years (SD: 4.4) and average total burn surface area (TBSA) of 8.5% (SD: 10.0) were collected. Minority patients were significantly more likely to experience accidental burn injury (p < 0.01), inhalational injury (p < 0.01), surgical management (p < 0.01), and to undergo skin graft (p < 0.01) than White patients. Minority patients were significantly more likely to undergo laser treatment after discharge (p < 0.01) than White patients. Our study shows minority pediatric patients are at risk for non-intentional burn injuries that undergo surgical management such as skin grafting and longitudinal reconstructive procedures including laser therapy more often. Short-term goals should include facilitating improved physical and psychosocial outcomes in this often-underserved patient population.
