Comparison of length of hospital stay to mortality rate in a regional burn center.

Data were collected prospectively from 196 patients admitted to our regional burn center during a 10-month period. Fifteen patients died during hospitalization, for a mortality rate of 7.7%. The mean hospital stay of the 181 patients who survived was 13.9 days (+/- 13.7 SD), ranging from 2 to 89 days. The mean burn size was 9.2% (+/- 11% SD), ranging from 0.5% to 60% total body surface area. One hundred ten patients received at least 1 day of antibiotic treatment, and 22 patients required ventilatory support during hospitalization. Hospital stay was longer for those requiring antibiotics (18.6 days vs 7 days) or ventilatory support (34.4 days vs 11.2 days). When these and other variables were entered into a linear regression model, the most powerful predictors of hospital stay were burn size and duration of antibiotic use (p = 0.0001), followed next by the presence of other traumatic injuries (p = 0.047).