MORTALITY EVOLUTION STUDY OF BURN PATIENTS IN A CRITICAL CARE BURN UNIT BETWEEN 1971 AND 1991

This study was carried out in the critical care area of a burn unit. T he mortality of burn patients was studied over three periods: 1971-83; 1984-87; 1988-91. The first period was studied retrospectively, the m ore recent periods were studied prospectively. The number of patients included in the study was 2859. The incidence of fatal bums during the three periods was compared standardizing for age, body burn surface a nd burn depth. Taking the first period as a reference, the mortality r eduction in the second and third period was 14 and 37 per cent, respec tively. In both the move recent periods of intensive medical care was introduced for the patients: early surgical treatments; nasal, pharyng eal, intestinal and burn surface decolonization and catheter puncture prophylaxis. We believe that the observed mortality reduction was due to these reasons. Using logistic regression a predictive mortality equ ation was obtained with three risk factors: age, total body surface ar ea burned and burn depth. We are now able to obtain a mortality score soon after the patient is admitted to the unit.