Background and objective

Burns are considered a public health problem worldwide due to the great physical, psychological, economic and social impact they cause.

The objective of this paper is to describe epidemiological characteristics of pediatric patients with burns in our regional area.

Methods

A retrospective descriptive study was carried out ta- king as universe total number of pediatric patients with burns treated at Baca Ortiz Hospital in Quito, Ecuador, from January to December 2016.

Results

We studied 343 pediatric patients with burns of which 180 required hospitalization (52.48%). Predominance of younger than 5 years old (67.6%) was observed. Masculine gender was most affected (55.7%), burns caused by hot liquid reported a frequency of 70.6%. Electric burns reported longer hospital stay. Mortality of 1.1% was registered related to burns caused by fire, greater than 50% of body surface area and airway commitment.

Conclusions

Children younger than 5 years old are most vulnerable to burn. Hot liquid was the main etiology of burns. Fatal cases were related to burns caused by fire and airway injury. Electric burns are devastating; severity of injuries causes longer hospital stay and greater need for amputation of affected limb.

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