An Audit of First-Aid Treatment of Pediatric Burns Patients and Their Clinical Outcome

• DOI: 10.1097/bcr.0b013e3181bfb7d1
• Publication Date: 2009-12-11T08:22:17Z
• Authors: Leila Cuttle; Olena Kravchuk; Belinda Wallis; Roy M. Kimble
• Keywords: Male; Adolescent; 610; Dermatology; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; 616; First Aid; Humans; Preschool; Child; 11 Medical and Health Sciences; Retrospective Studies; Medical Audit; Chi-Square Distribution; Infant; 3. Good health; Logistic Models; Treatment Outcome; Burns/epidemiology/therapy; Child, Preschool; Emergency Medicine; Surgery; Female; Queensland; Burns

This study describes the first aid used and clinical outcomes of all patients who presented to the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia in 2005 with an acute burn injury. A retrospective audit was performed with the charts of 459 patients and information concerning burn injury, first-aid treatment, and clinical outcomes was collected. First aid was used on 86.1% of patients, with 8.7% receiving no first aid and unknown treatment in 5.2% of cases. A majority of patients had cold water as first aid (80.2%), however, only 12.1% applied the cold water for the recommended 20 minutes or longer. Recommended first aid (cold water for >or=20 minutes) was associated with significantly reduced reepithelialization time for children with contact injuries (P=.011). Superficial depth burns were significantly more likely to be associated with the use of recommended first aid (P=.03). Suboptimal treatment was more common for children younger than 3.5 years (P<.001) and for children with friction burns. This report is one of the few publications to relate first-aid treatment to clinical outcomes. Some positive clinical outcomes were associated with recommended first-aid use; however, wound outcomes were more strongly associated with burn depth and mechanism of injury. There is also a need for more public awareness of recommended first-aid treatment.