title: An audit of first-aid treatment of pediatric burns patients and their clinical outcome.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Royal Children's Hospital Burns Research Group, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, University of Queensland, Herston, Australia.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cuttle
authors.forename: Olena
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kravchuk
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wallis
authors.forename: Roy M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Kimble
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002056:Burns / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005392:First Aid / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D011793:Queensland / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome