Burn injuries caused by ship fire: a 12-year study in Shanghai.
The 105 patients admitted to our Burn Institute from 1st January 1996 to 31st December 2007, with ship fire-related burns were studied retrospectively. The mean age was 30.2+/-12.6 years with a range of 1-58. One hundred and three patients (98.1%) were men and 2 (1.9%) women. The mean total burn surface area (TBSA) was 46.5%, mostly deep burns. The most common areas of burn were the head, neck and upper limb. Summer months July, August, June and September were times of highest incidence. Fifty-seven (54.3%) patients had inhalation injury, 42 received tracheotomy, and 38 received mechanical ventilation. The treatment was complex, difficult, long, and costly. The interval between burn and start of resuscitation ranged from 2.1 to 67 h with a mean of (5.9+/-4.4)h. Forty-two patients (40%) started intravenous fluid resuscitation 6h after burn. Twenty-four patients (23%) received insufficient fluid resuscitation developed hypotension and severe shock at admission. Ninety-two (87.6%) patients required operations including tracheotomy, debridement and grafting, per patient was 5.2. The mean length of hospital stay was 44.2 days. Pulmonary edema was the most common complication during the early post-burn period (within 7 days), and sepsis during the later period (>7 days). Nine patients died of MODS or sepsis, giving a mortality rate of 8.57%.


CONCLUSIONS
Caution and preventive measures are needed for persons in ships for fire-related burns.
Ben
Dao-Feng
DF
Department of Burns, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 168# Changhai Road, Shanghai 200433, PR China.
Ma
Bing
B
Chen
Xu-Lin
XL
Zhu
Shi-Hui
SH
Tang
Hong-Tai
HT
Lu
Wei
W
Xia
Zhao-Fan
ZF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002056:Burns / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005390:Fires; D005440:Fluid Therapy; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012767:Ships; D015208:Smoke Inhalation Injury / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult