Survey of 1000 admissions to a burns unit SSKM hospital,Calcutta

A series of 1000 cases treated in our Burns Unit in Calcutta is reported. Of those, 688 cases (68·8 per cent) were between the ages 11 to 50 years, 274 (27·4 per cent) were children below 10 years and the remaining 38 (3·8 per cent) were above 50 years. Out of the children, 180 were boys and 94 girls. In the adult group there were 354 males and 372 females. Mortality rate was 20·4 per cent in this series. This high figure is due to the high rate of suicide; 74 out of 204 deaths were due to suicidal burns. In these cases, burns were extensive and deep in nature and the patients have no will to live. In the remaining 130 cases, the burns were caused by domestic or industrial accidents. Overall mortality rate was much lower than when the burns cases were treated in general wards along with surgical and medical cases.This paper brings out the importance of having a separate burns unit for acute burns cases, where specially trained nursing staff and doctors look after the patients.