Burn injuries in Lagos

Eighty-nine cases of burns admitted to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital during an 8-year-period (1968-75) have been studied. The age incidence ranged from 1 day to 54 years. Fifty cases (56.2 per cent) occurred in children below the age of 15 years. Thirty-nine (43.8 per cent) were adults, aged 15 years and above. Sixty-three cases (70.8 per cent) were domestic accidents. There was a mortality rate of 13.5 per cent. There was severe morbidity in the surviving cases, the average admission period in 73 cases being 37 days and the average total healing time in 57 cases being 54 days. The most troublesome late complications were contractures, hypertrophic or keloid scars and failure of repigmentation. Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 64 per cent of the incidence of wound sepsis. Health education has an important role to play in the prevention of burn accidents both in the home and in industry. In particular, it is suggested that cooking above floor level and closer supervision of children should reduce the incidence of domestic burns in younger children, while stricter factory inspection, with rigorous enforcement of industrial safety laws, should reduce the incidence of industrial burn accidents in the working adult population.