Survival and Associated Risk Factors in Mechanically Ventilated Burn Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study aimed to determine the survival rate and identify associated risk factors in mechanically ventilated (MV) burn patients.

This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at Velayat Hospital, a burn and plastic surgery referral center affiliated with Guilan University of Medical Sciences, between March 2011, and September 2020. Data were retrieved from electronic medical records and analyzed using SPSS software (version 24.0). Patients discharged alive or lost to follow-up were treated as censored observations in a time-to-event analysis.

The mean age of survivors was 19.03±30.21 years, compared to 42.54±19.30 years in the non-survivors. Men comprised 78.9% (n=30) of survivors and 64.9% (n=155) of non-survivors. The mean intensive care unit (ICU) survival time was 18.33±1.36 days (median=12±1.24 days). There were significant differences between survivor and non-survivor groups in terms of age, length of stay, presence of comorbidities, inhalation injury, sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and acute kidney injury (AKI) (p<0.05). The Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a significant difference in survival probability between MV and non-MV groups (p=0.028), with a higher survival probability observed in non-MV patients.

Age, length of stay, renal failure, ARDS, and sepsis were associated with increased mortality risk in MV burn patients. While these findings highlighted critical prognostic factors, causal inferences require further investigation through longitudinal or interventional studies to guide targeted therapeutic strategies.