MAJOR BURNS IN CAPE-TOWN - A MODIFIED BURNS SCORE FOR PATIENT TRIAGE

Major burns equal to, or greater than, 30 per cent total body surface area (TBSA) constitute 23 per cent of the admissions to the adult burn s unit in Cape Town. A retrospective review over a 28-month period ide ntified 87 cases of major burns. This paper summarizes the epidemiolog y and mortality amongst this patient group over this period. Demand fo r treatment can exceed bed availability in the unit. The difficult iss ue, this raises, of patient triage in relation to the relatively limit ed resources is addressed and a simple modified burns score proposed f or this unit. The effect this score would have in optimizing the use o f our resources is demonstrated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd for ISB I. All rights reserved.