The Journal of burn care & rehabilitation
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In spite of the fact that injury warning labels have been placed on radiator caps for the last 15 years, automobile radiator scald burns continue to be a burn prevention problem. The temperature of radiator fluid may be as high as 100 degrees F to 250 degrees F in a properly functioning car and higher in an overheated vehicle. From 1974 to 1990, 100 patients with burns that were caused by automobile radiators have been admitted to the Parkland Memorial Hospital Burn Unit (1.5% of acute admissions). ⋯ Four patients sustained minor ocular injuries. A subgroup of patients demands special review: 10 children younger than 10 years of age (mean age, 4.1 years) of which 70% were boys. Mean burn size was 15.5% TBSA; mean full-thickness burn size was 2.4% (four times larger than the mean burn size for the adult population).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Between February 20, 1987 and July 13, 1990, 844 patients were admitted to the Grady Memorial Hospital Burn Unit. Mean age was 25.5 years, mean burn size 16.5% total body surface area, mean survivor hospital length of stay 15.9 days, and an overall survival 90.5%. Seventy-three percent were male. ⋯ Survival in 62 patients with inhalation injury (55.23%) was significantly less than that in 474 patients without inhalation injury (98.10%) (p less than 0.0001). The three variables--age, burn size, and inhalation injury--each influenced survival significantly but appeared to be dependent on each other; all three tended to increase or decrease together. Logistic regression equations to predict survival were developed.