Occurrence and early outcomes of inhalation burns in burn injury patients admitted to Kenyatta National hospital a referral burns centre in east Africa
Abstract
Introduction; Bum injuries occur universally and have plagued mankind
from antiquity till now. Burn injuries constitute a major cause of morbidity
and mortality worldwide. Inhalation burns occur in most of severe cases
resulting in the immediate post burn deaths if appropriate measures are not
undertaken.
Methods; This was a descriptive cross sectional prospective study carried
out over a period of 4 months among severely burnt inpatients at Kenyatta
National Hospital in Bums Unit, Intensive Care Unit(ICU) and High
Dependency Unit(HDU) who met the inclusion criteria.
Results; A total of 50 patients with a mean age of 23 years were enrolled.
The male to female ratio was 3:2 with almost all of the patients being of low
socioeconomic status. Over 80% of the patients were from house fires. The
mean time before admission was 4 hours. Sixteen patients were intubated
and 31 % of these died within the first 72 hours of admission.
Conclusion; Most inhalation bum injuries occurred due to house fires.
Intubation was done without bronchoscopy. There is need for fire prevention
policy and adherence to inhalation injury management protocol.