Incidence and treatment of burns: A twenty-year experience from a single center in Germany

Objective

To analyze trends in incidence and treatment of thermal injuries over the last two decades.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed our local single center database of patients with thermal injuries admitted to the burn intensive care unit (BICU) of the Cologne-Merheim Medical Center (University Hospital of Witten/Herdecke). The cohort was divided into two groups according to the decade of admission and the epidemiology and clinical course of the patient sample admitted during the period 1991–2000 (n = 911) was compared to that of 2001–2010 (n = 695).

Results

The following variables were significantly different in the bivariate analysis: mean age (39.8 years vs. 44.0 years), burn size of total body surface area (23.2% vs. 18.0%) and size of 3rd degree burns (9.6% vs. 14.9%). The incidence of inhalation injury was significantly lower in the last decade (33.3% vs. 13.7%) and was associated with a shorter duration of mechanical ventilation (10.8 days vs. 8.5 days). The ABSI-score as an indicator of burn severity declined in the second period (6.3 vs. 6.0) contributing partially to the decline of BICU length of stay (19.1 days vs. 18.8 days) and to the mortality rate decrease (18.6% vs. 15.0%).

Conclusion

The severity of burn injuries during the last two decades declined, probably reflecting the success of prevention campaigns. Concerning mortality, the chance of dying for a given severity of injury has decreased.