title: Pediatric oral burns: a ten-year review of patient characteristics, etiologies and treatment outcomes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To summarize etiologies and treatments of pediatric oropharyngeal burns.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective summary of 75 patients treated from January 1999 to January 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tertiary Children's Hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data collected included demographics, etiology of burn, site of injury, medical and/or surgical treatments, need for endoscopy, duration of hospitalization, and complications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  75 patients were treated with 50 being males (66%). Mean age was 4.3 years (median 2.7 years). The five most common causes were chemical (34.6%), electrical (12.3%), hot liquids (12.3%), food (12.3%) and battery ingestion (9.9%). Ingestion of hair products made up nearly 1/3 of the chemical causes (9/28) and alone made up 12% of the burns in our study. Main sites of injury included buccal mucosa (77.3%), lips (56%), tongue (48%), and palate (22.7%). One-third of the patients' required PICU/Burn unit admissions, 1/3 were admitted to floor, and 1/3 were discharged home from the ED. Average duration of hospitalization was 5 days. Of those admitted, 30% received antibiotics and only 8% received systemic steroids. Patients were made NPO on the first day of admission in 33.3% of patients and allowed to resume normal diet after surgical consultation. Only 9/75 (12%) patients required intubation. Otolaryngology consultation was obtained in 10.7% of cases. Only 18% of all patients required surgical intervention with debridement being most common (>60%). In this group, 20% received esophagogastroduodenoscopies due to ingestion of alkali substance. Complications occurred in less than 6% of all cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ingestion of chemicals, including hair dye/relaxer products, as well as overheated liquids and foods, are leading causes of oropharyngeal burns treated at our Children's Hospital Emergency Department over the past decade.
authors.affiliation: ENT Associates of Greater Kansas City, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Sykes
authors.forename: Julie L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002056:Burns / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003422:Critical Care; D003646:Debridement; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009055:Mouth / Q000293:injuries*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Caustic ingestion; Hair products; Microwave; Oral burns; Oropharyngeal burns; Pediatric burns