Prognostic factors affecting the mortality of 2nd and 3rd degree burn injuries at a tertiary care center in Indonesia

Abstract

About two million people suffer from burn injuries in the United States each
year, with 100,000 hospitalized in the burn unit. Around 1000 patients suffer
from severe burn injuries, with each year average of 300 deaths. Improvements
in the understanding of the prognostic factors affecting burn injuries over the
past decades have led to advances in medical and surgical treatment. However,
comprehensive data on the factors affecting burn injuries in Indonesia have
not been available, yet. The aim of the study was to investigate the prognostic
factors affecting the mortality of 2nd and 3rd burn injuries patients in Dr. Sardjito
General Hospital, Yogyakarta. This was a cross-sectional study conducted within
the period of 2007-2011 using secondary data from the Department of Medical
Records. Chi-square and logistic regression analysis were used to evaluate the
correlation between the prognostic factors and the mortality. A p value < 0.05
(95% confidence interval) was considered to be significant. A significantly
correlation between age, burn injuries percentage, arrival time, inhalation trauma,
hemoglobin level, albumin level, creatinine level, hematocrit level and the patient’s
mortality was observed in this study (p<0.05). However, the cause of burn injuries
and leukocyte count had no correlation with the patient’s mortality (p>0.05).
Furthermore, patients with albumin level < 3.5 mg/dL, burn injuries percentage
>50%, inhalation trauma and hospitalized in 24 hours after the incident were at
22.98, 7.65, 3.0 and 4.59 times higher risk of mortality, respectively (p<0.05).
In conclusion, albumin level, burn injury percentage, inhalation trauma and time of
arrival are prognostic factors affecting the mortality of the burn injuries patients.