Abstract:

Although elderly patients are more vulnerable to burn trauma, there are insufficient data about burn injuries for this population. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of age on etiological, clinical and prognostic features of burn injury. We reviewed 76 patients aged 45 years and older treated during a 20-year period in our Burn Unit, retrospectively. Patients were divided in to three groups with respect to their ages (Group 1: 45-60 years; Group 2: 61-69 years and Group 3: older than 70 years). In all groups, the most frequent cause of injury was flame burns followed by electrical and scald injury. The survival rate was 51.3% overall and 44% for group 3. Mortality rates correlated with patient age, burn size and presence of congestive heart failure or psychiatric disorders. Sepsis was the leading cause of death (62.2%) followed by resuscitation failure (18.9%) and multiple organ failure (10.9%). Length of hospital stay showed a random distribution. In conclusion, outcome of elderly patients with burn injuries need to be improved compared with children and young adult patients. In patients older than 45 years, factors that may increase the risk of morbidity and mortality should be evaluated early, and sepsis, resuscitation failure and multiple organ failure should be prevented, where possible.

Keywords: