Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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Disparities affecting incarcerated burn-injured patients: Insight from the National Burn Repository.
Incarcerated patients are a vulnerable population and little is known regarding the epidemiology of burn injury and subsequent outcomes. This study utilizes a national database to assess disparities in care affecting this understudied population. ⋯ Although incarcerated burn-injured patients sustain smaller injuries and receive fewer operations they remain hospitalized for similar durations as non-incarcerated patients. Enhanced understanding of burn etiologies and injury characteristics as well as improved insight into the impact of psychosocial factors such as substance abuse and prevalence of psychiatric disorders may help improve care.
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Risk factors and mechanisms of injury may change over time. Since knowledge on aetiology of severe burn incidents in children under 5 years of age in the Netherlands is outdated, this study aimed to identify current risk factors and mechanisms of severe burn injury in children under 5 years of age in the Netherlands to direct future prevention campaigns. ⋯ Outcomes of this prospective cohort study provide up-to-date and extensive knowledge on the aetiology of severe burn incidents in children under 5 years of age in the Netherlands, and provide directions for prevention policy and campaigns.
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Observational Study
Relieving pain and distress symptoms in the outpatient burn clinic: The contribution of a medical clown.
High levels of pain and emotional distress characterize the experience of patients, at burn outpatient clinic and reflect on their accompanying persons and the medical personal. ⋯ Presence of a medical clown induced a positive atmosphere in the clinic. It is possible that the effect of humor through stress reduction mechanism lessened agony. Furthermore, the distraction the clown evoked played a role in the decrease of pain and emotional distress. We recommend implementing psychosocial oriented interventions such as those performed by a medical clown to improve the emotional atmosphere in the ambulatory clinic of patients, accompanying persons and healthcare personnel.
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To describe incidence and characteristics of hospital presentations and deaths due to burn injury in the Australian state of Victoria from 2008 to 2017 and identify trends in incidence and patterns. ⋯ The risk of sustaining burn injury, the types of burn and outcomes, varied by age and gender. We found evidence of a limited decrease in burn injury rates in some sub-groups: appropriate and effective targeted prevention strategies for burns are needed to avoid the significant short and long-term suffering experienced.
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Hospital volume has been identified as an independent outcome parameter for a number of medical fields and surgical procedures, and there is a tendency to increase required patient numbers for center verification. However, the existing literature does not support a clear correlation between patient load and clinical outcome in adult burn care and recent data from Germany does not exist. We therefore evaluated the effect of patient volume in German burn centers on clinical outcome. ⋯ Interestingly a division into three groups showed significant differences with the best outcome for patients in medium-volume centers. Nevertheless, mortality did not differ significantly. Therefore, our data demonstrates that in contrast to many other medical fields, outcome and mortality are not automatically improved in burn care by simply increasing the patient load, at least in centers treating 20-100 BICU patients/year.