Epidemiological profile of electrical burn injuries among pediatric population in tertiary burn center
Sameer Pundeer, Rakesh Kumar Srivastav, Piyush K. ThayalBackground:
Burns injury causes serious morbidity among the pediatric population all around the globe. Childhood burn creates lifelong ailments.
Aims and Objective:
Epidemiological data on pediatric burns can provide vital information for developing prevention strategies.
Material and Methods:
A prospective observational study was conducted in the department of burns, plastic, and maxillofacial Surgery between April 2021 and August 2022. All pediatric patients up to the age of 12 years presenting to our casualty with electric burns were included in this study. The demographic details, mode and mechanism of injury, and burn assessment as per the Lund and Browder chart were recorded based on the information provided by the parent/guardian. Data were entered in an MS Excel spreadsheet and analysed using SPSS version 21.0.
Result:
Children above 6 years were more prone to electrical burn injuries in our study. Male: female ratio in our study was 2.4:1. Majority of the patients suffered electrical burn injuries at the terrace. Most of the patients suffered 70% burns expired.
Conclusion:
We conclude that electrical injuries due to high voltage electric current are on the rise in the pediatric population which is due to the transmitting wires passing in proximity to the dwelling houses and due to increasing urbanization with high-rise buildings becoming the norm. A large-scale multicentric study is required to ascertain the rise in the incidence of high-voltage burns.