Incidence of burns and their anatomical distribution: A nationwide register study in Finland

To provide a register-based analysis of the incidence, anatomical distribution, and associated operative care of all burn injuries treated in specialist care in Finland.

This is a register-based epidemiological study covering the entire population of Finland from 2011 to 2015. Our data include all burn patients registered in the Care Register for Health Care. We used the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision code for burn injuries and the Nordic Medico-Statistical Committee Classifications of Surgical Procedures for procedure codes. We calculated the mean crude and adjusted (to European Standard Population 2013) incidence rates of burns as cases per 100,000 person-years assuming Poisson distribution of cases for calculating 95% confidence intervals.

The study included 16,575 patients with burn injuries (male 63%). The mean standardized annual incidence rate per 100,000 person-years of any burn injury during the study period was 60.8 (95% CI 59.9-61.7). The corresponding values were 76.3 (95% CI 74.9-77.8) and 45.2 (95% CI 44.1-46.3) for male and female. Among patients admitted for ⩾2 days, the incidence rate per 100,000 was 10.9 (male 15.5 and female 6.5). The mean (SD) age was 32 (23) years. Hand injuries were the most common burns. The most frequently operated regions were the upper limb injuries. A total of 8.8% of patients were admitted for ⩾2 days, with a mean inpatient time of 12 (SD 29) days for females and 11 (19) days for. No male patient had inpatient time > 100 days.

Male patients had more burn injuries and were admitted to specialist care more often than females. Hand and wrist injuries were common but rarely operated. Limb and torso injuries were operated on most often. Females had a longer mean length of stay (LOS) than males in the age group 11-30 years. The reasons for this is unknown.