Long-term survival after burns in a Swedish population.
BACKGROUND
As widely reported, the progress in burn care during recent decades has reduced the hospital mortality. The effect of the burns on long-term outcome has not received so much attention, and more study is indicated. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the long-time survival among patients who had been treated for burns.


METHODS
We studied 1487 patients who were discharged alive from the Linköping University Hospital Burn Centre during the period 1993 until the end of December 2012. We used Cox's regression analysis to study the effect of burns on long-term survival after adjustment for different factors.


RESULTS
Age and a full-thickness burn were significantly associated with mortality after discharge (p<0.001), whereas percentage of total body surface area burned (TBSA %), need for mechanical ventilation, and gender were not. Less than 1% of the patients with burns (13/1487) died within 30 days of discharge and a total of 176/1487 (12%) died during follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Age and full-thickness burns reduce the long-time survival after discharge from the Burn Centre, whereas the effect of TBSA% and need for artificial ventilation ends with discharge.
The Burn Centre, Department of Hand and Plastic Surgery, Linköping University, Region of Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: laura.pompermaier@regionostergotland.se.
Laura
L
Pompermaier
The Burn Centre, Department of Hand and Plastic Surgery, Linköping University, Region of Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden.
Ingrid
I
Steinvall
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Mats
M
Fredrikson
The Burn Centre, Department of Hand and Plastic Surgery, Linköping University, Region of Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden.
Johan
J
Thorfinn
The Burn Centre, Department of Hand and Plastic Surgery, Linköping University, Region of Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden; Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Region of Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden.
Folke
F
Sjöberg
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001830:Body Surface Area; D002053:Burn Units; D002056:Burns / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D017741:Survivors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D055815:Young Adult
Burns; Long-term survival; Mortality; Outcome