Abstract:

Background: Burn injuries are a global public health problem, accounting for an estimated 195000 death annually. The majority of these occur in low and middle income countries and the rate of child deaths from burns is currently over seven higher in low and middle income countries than high income countries. Burn injuries are largely considered as being preventable. However, one needs to know the patterns, causes and outcomes of burn injuries if intervention measures are to be effective.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, causes and early complications of burn injury in pediatrics at Sekou Toure regional and referral hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Methodology: This study was conducted at Sekou Toure regional and referral hospital by implementing a descriptive cross sectional study design. Confidentiality was the major priority and was observed, unauthorized person was not access to the data collected except the data are accessible to the research group only using patient coded number and not names. A total of 196 burn patients were recruited by simple random sampling method. Data was collected from admitted patients and out patients. SPSS version 17 was used for data entry and analysis. Permission to carry out this study was granted by the Ethics and Research committee of the CUHAS and the hospital medical officer tricharge of Sekou Toure hospital.

Results: About 55.5% were males while 44.4% were female. The mean age was 2.6 years, with a male of female ratio of 1.2:1. About 82.2% of the burns were burns due to scalds while 14.6% was due to flame and 2.5% was due to other causes. The upper limbs and trunk were the most commonly affected. Most of the burns (96.5%) occurred accidentally, although some (3.5%) were intentional. About 90.3% of these burn injuries occurred at home. The estimated prevalence was 8%. Immediately after burn 87.3% of the children had first aid applied on their wounds while 12.7% didn’t apply anything. The study revealed that analgesics, intravenous fluids, antiseptics and antibiotics were the drugs used for treatment of burns in the hospital. About 98% of early complications were minor scars, followed by thermoregulatory dysfunction 68%, fluid and electrolyte imbalance 62%, hypovolemic shock 44%.

Conclusion: The prevalence of burn among pediatric patients was found to be 8.23%. Causes of childhood burns are largely preventable requiring active social/medical education and public enlighten campaigns on the various methods of prevention. The management of burns at Sekou Toure regional and referral hospital in challenging. Prevention of burn injuries should be advocated.