Clinical Profile of Pediatric Burn Care Unit of Halibet Hospital in Eritrea

Background: Pediatric burn injuries result in severe and long-term complications in the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Accurate data on burn injuries are either unavailable or incomplete in Eritrea. Objective: The objective of this study was to define the clinical characteristics of pediatric burn injuries in the Burn Care Unit of Halibet hospital in 2018 in Asmara, Eritrea. Methods: The study design was a retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study. The medical records of pediatric patients aged 15 years and below admitted to the Burn Care Unit of Halibet hospital between January 2018 and December 2018 were assessed. Results: In the study period, 524 children with burn injuries were admitted to the Unit. The mean age of the study group was 4.2 +/- 3.7 years. Nearly 75% of the patients were in the age group 1-5 years. In 95.3% of the patients, scalds were the most common type of burn with burn injury occurring mostly indoor in 98.1% of cases. The average length of hospital stay was 4.6 +/- 8.4 days with a median of 1 day. In 94.8% of the patients, the body surface area involved was 1-10%, and the most body part involved was the extremity in 80.7% of the cases. Patients with body surface involvement >10% and who came from rural areas stayed longer in hospital and those with scald burns have a shorter hospital stay. Patients with body surface area involvement >10% and who came from rural areas also have more complications. Conclusion: The most affected age group were 1-5 years old children with scalds being the most common type of burns with injury occurring mostly indoors in this population. Teaching parents about household safety, seeking early medical attention, and raising public awareness could decrease the incidence of burn injury in children.