Treatment of severely burned children: 6-year experience in Guayaquil-Ecuador. Abstract

Tratamiento de niños gran quemados: Experiencia de 6 años en Guayaquil, Ecuador

Introduction: devere burns negatively affect all organ systems, especially in children. Objective: to collect and detail the evolution of pediatric patients with more than 30% of total burn body surface (BBS) Methods: descriptive, observational, retrospective, cross-sectional study, carried out in the burn unit of the Dr. Roberto Gilbert Elizalde Children’s Hospital in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, between January 2014 and January 2020. Results: 46 pediatric patients with > 30% of BBS were included in the
study, predominantly males, with 26 (57%) patients and 20 (43%) female patients, being the age range from 1 to 15 years, with more frequency in the age group of 1 to 5 years
with a total of 26 (55.5%) patients. The most frequent mechanism of injury was direct flame, affecting 22 (47.83%) kids, 21 (45.65%) presented combined burns Between
II-III degree. the BBS range was from 30% to 70%, with an average of 40.7%, the treatment performed was an average of 3,6 scarectomies per patient, dressings were placed on 42 (91%) of them, 40 (87%) required grafts, the average hospital stay was 43,6 days (range: 2-126 days). Complications occurred in 29 (63%), sepsis being themost frequent, in 8 (17%), and 5 (11%) patients died. Conclusion: 89% of the Pediatric patients seen in our burn unit with more than 30% of BBS were mostly treated with autograft or with a flap, obtaining good results and being discharged.