Quality of prehospital management of patients with burn injuries--a retrospective study.

The authors evaluate the quality of burn patient management prior to admission to a specialized department. The most frequent mistake was found to be inadequate airway management (no intubation) and a lack of an i.v. line and volume resuscitation. These problems could be seen especially in the patients admitted to the specialized department as secondary transfers, following initial treatment in another healthcare facility. Prehospital care of the patients admitted as primary transfers was found to be satisfactory in the majority of cases. The authors conclude that some mistakes in diagnosis may be caused by the development of the burn over time as well as by the fact that certain clinical experience is necessary for determining the correct diagnosis. The predominant cause of inadequate management in patients with severe thermal injuries is underestimating the severity of the injury and ignorance of the possible consequences of inadequate management of the patients for transfer.