Epidemiology of burn at a military hospital in Bahrain: initial experience of patient outcomes and quality indicators.

Burn injuries are one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. We undertook a retrospective study to analyze the epidemiology and etiology of burn injuries at the burn unit of Bahrain Defence Force-Royal Medical Services from 2015 to 2016. The epidemiological and medical information were retrieved from the burn unit's (burn ward and burn intensive care unit (BICU)) medical records. The data were analyzed in Microsoft Excel. We observed that civilians were most affected by burn injuries and men were more affected than women. The age group of the maximally burnt patients differed between the burn ward and BICU. The age group of 21-30 years and 51-60 years were maximally affected by burn injuries among patients admitted in the BICU, whereas the 1-10 years age group dominated cases in the burn ward. Flame and scald burns contributed maximally to the burn cases in both years. TBSA 0-10% was the most commonly observed burn size. The length of hospital stay decreased from 2015 to 2016, possibly because of improvements in medical infrastructure and nursing care and opening of a burn dressing room. Wound dressing, surgical debridement and skin grafting of wounds were the predominant modes of treatment. Our results show that burn injuries remain an important public health issue and increase in public awareness about burn prevention and first aid should be emphasized for reducing the frequency of burn-associated mortalities.