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Every year over a million people suffer
burn injuries that require medical attention.
A Congressional report dated January 24,
2007 found that there are only 128 burn
centers in the United States. "The
total burn-bed capacity at all burn centers
in the United States is 1,835 beds. Burn
centers in four States have closed..."
Despite this, the most recent statistics
from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention lists burns as the sixth leading
cause of unintentional accidental deaths.
According to the American Burn Association
the average size of a burn injury admitted
to a burn center is about 14% of total
body surface area. Burns of 10% TBSA or
less account for 54% of burn center admissions,
while burns of 60% TBSA or more account
for 4% of admissions. About 6% of burn
center admissions do not survive, most
of whom have suffered severe inhalation
injury in fires.
Below is the American Burn Associations
criteria for referral to a burn unit:
BURN UNIT REFERRAL CRITERIA
A burn unit may treat adults or children
or both. Burn injuries that should be
referred to a burn unit include the following:
- Partial thickness burns greater than
10% total body surface area (TBSA)
- Burns that involve the face, hands,
feet, genitalia, perineum, or major
joints
- Third-degree burns in any age group
- Electrical burns, including lightning
injury
- Chemical burns
- Inhalation Injury
- Burn injury in patients with preexisting
medical disorders that could complicate
management, prolong recovery, or affect
mortality.
- Any patients with burns and concomitant
trauma (such as fractures) in which
the burn injury poses the greatest risk
of morbidity or mortality. In such cases,
if the trauma poses the greater immediate
risk, the patient may be initially stabilized
in a trauma center before being transferred
to a burn unit. Physician judgment will
be necessary in such situations and
should be in concert with the regional
medical control plan and triage protocols.
- Burned children in hospitals without
qualified personnel or equipment for
the care of children
- Burn injury in patients who will require
special social, emotional, or long-term
rehabilitative intervention
View
all Burn Centers located in the United
States.
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