Epidemiological and clinical profile of burn victims Hospital Universitario San Vicente de Paúl, Medellín, 1994-2004.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of the patients in the Burn Unit of the Hospital Universitario San Vicente de Paúl (HUSVP) de Medellín, Colombia, from 1994-2004.


METHODS
Retrospective descriptive study of all pediatric and adult burn patients. The following were recorded: age, gender, cause, extent and severity of the burns, time in the hospital, operations, complications and death rate. Statistica 6.0 (Stafsoft Inc.) was used.


RESULTS
Two thousand three hundred and nineteen patients were admitted, 66.8% were males and 62.9% were less than 15 years old. Burns caused by scalding were the most frequent (45.9%) followed by flames (38.5%) The average burn area was 26.9%. Average hospital stay was 26.9 days. In 2004, 40.4% of the patients required surgery; 13.4% of the patients had complications. 7.4% of the patients died, with an average burn area of 62%; burns caused by flames accounted for 63% of the deaths.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a continuing improvement in hospital stay, survives burn sizes, with figures comparable to others without access to a tissue bank or skin cultivation.
Franco
Marco Antonio Hoyos
MA
Burn Unit, Hospital Universitario San Vicente De Paúl (HUSVP), Medellín, Colombia. mhoyosf@hotmail.com
Gonzáles
Nora Cecilia Jaramillo
NC
Díaz
María Eugenia Molina
ME
Pardo
Sonia Valverde
SV
Ospina
Sigifredo
S
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002056:Burns / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors