Hospital management of pediatric patients with burns of second and third grade

Abstract

Background: Childhood burns are the second most prevalent trauma, care should be guided by scientific evidence to promote proper management. The goal of this study was to determine the hospital management second and third-degree burns in pediatric patients.
Methods: Review of clinical records of patients diagnosed with second and third-degree burns between 2010 and 2012 at the Pediatric Surgery Department of the ""Dr Enrique Baltodano Briceño"" Hospital. A population of 50 patients complied with the selection criteria.
Results: In 52% of the cases the diagnosed patients were females, with a distribution of ages between 0 and 5 years in 72%. In 60% of the medical records the ""burned patient chart"" was not used. The Fortunato Benaim's and Cover Smith's classifications are used to estimate the depth of burns. Intravenous fluids were used in 78% of the population, however, just five cases met the criteria for fluid therapy; the Parkland formula is the most used one. In 76% of the cases antibiotics therapy was used during hospitalization, but only in 44.7% of such cases the reason for its use was recorded. The evolution of burns was satisfactory in 90% of the cases. Average re-epithelialization obtaining 95% occurred within 5.1 days and average stay is 7.76 days for the study´s population.
Conclusion: According to current recommendations, weakness were found regarding fluid therapy, use of burned patient chart, antibiotics therapy and diagnosis of burn depth according to current recommendations.