Burn injuries associated with road trauma

This paper details the results of an eleven-year survey of patients admitted to the burns unit at the Royal Brisbane Hospital with injuries secondary to motor vehicle accidents. There were 64 subjects in this group. Forty-five were involved in car accidents and 19 in cycle accidents. Fifty of the patients were male, with a mean age of 26.9 years. The mean age of the 14 females was 24.9 years. Petrol fires emerged as the major source of injury in those individuals involved in car accidents, while hot metal injured most of the cyclists. Cyclists did not seem to be more prone to friction burns than motorists. Burns to the limbs predominated, but respiratory burns occurred in seven of the eight patients who did not survive. The median duration of hospitalization was 21 days, and the death rate in this series was 12.5%.