An analysis of 550 hospitalized pediatric burn patients in Hong Kong.

A total of 550 acute burn patients under the age of 15 years were admitted to the Burns Unit of Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong between March 1993 and February 1999. There were 337 males and 213 females with a male to female ratio of 1.58:1. The median age was 2.5 years and the median burn size was 5% total body surface area (TBSA). Toddlers of age < 2 years accounted for 235 (42.7%) of admission. Domestic burns resulted in 481 (87.5%) injuries followed by play-related burns that caused 34 (6.2%) admissions. Scalding was the most common cause of injury, which accounted for 497 (90.4%) admissions, followed by flame burns, which resulted in 45 (8.2%) injuries. Nine patients (1.6%) had inhalation injury requiring intubation and ventilatory support. The median hospital stay was 8 days and there was no seasonal variation in admission. The majority of patients (80.2%) had their wounds healed without any operation. Only 19 out of 550 patients (3.5%) had burns of 30% TBSA or larger, and only nine patients (1.9%) had inhalation injuries. Only one patient died in this series, which yielded a mortality rate of 0.2%.