Time trends in incidence of hypertrophic scarring in children treated for burns.

Control of burn-scar hypertrophy remains a priority program in the care of burned children. We analysed data from 779 clinical notes of children aged from 0 to 15 years who were hospitalised at the Burn Centre in Brno between 1991 and 1996. The occurrence of hypertrophic scarring in burn-injured children was studied by monitoring two periods separately, the first period from 1991 to 1993 and the second period with better clinical advantages from 1994 to 1996 using outpatients' records. The incidence of scar hypertrophy was at least 32% in both periods. However, the occurrence of hypertrophic scarring in these two periods did not appear to have been influenced by changes in clinical practice.