High cost of flame burns
Hospital study reveals boys under four more likely to have scald injuries
PAEDIATRIC patients who have severe flame burns account for more prolonged hospital stays requiring expensive interventions such as surgery compared to liquid burns or scalds, a study at Red Cross Children’s Hospital has found.
During the study, which was carried out by the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, University of Toronto and UCT to determine patient demographics and injury details of almost 1000 burns patients admitted to Red Cross, researchers established that while scalds affected the majority (74percent) of the patients, flame burns tended to be more complex and incurred the greatest financial costs.
Younger patients, mostly boys aged four years and younger were likely to have burns, mostly scalds, while flame and more extensive burns were more prevalent in older paediatric patients.
Patients with flame burns had considerably longer hospital stays requiring more frequent dressing changes than those with scalds. Cost drivers were identified as length of hospitalisation, operative costs, wound care and use of pharmaceuticals, as well as human capital costs.
Burns victims accounted for 62 percent of the costs incurred in bed occupation. Scalds were considered far less cheaper to treat, with patients spending a third of the time flame burn patients did, requiring less medication and fewer dressing changes. They were also four times less likely to require surgery than those with flame burns.
Lead researcher Dr Alan David Rogers from the University of Toronto said there was clearly an enormous need to reduce the incidence of preventable trauma in South Africa such as burn injuries, given the costs of treatment involved.
Writing in the SA Medical Journal, he said while South African research has MONDAY NOVEMBER 28 2016 shown considerably savings could be achieved by using modern burn wound management strategies, community-based interventions that focused on legislation, first aid and education programmes could reduce the incidence of burn injuries up by 80 percent.
“Endeavours such as these would amount to a fraction of the cost of managing burn injuries in a hospital setting, but it would require the concerted participation of local, regional and national governments,” he said.