Medico-social aspects of burn injuries

Abstract

Background: Globally approximately 2.5 lakh deaths occur every year, with majority of cases from low and middle socioeconomic
strata. The epidemiological characteristics of burn may vary widely throughout the world. This study has been aimed to study
medico social aspect of burn patients to evaluate mode of injury and preventive measures to decrease incidence. Materials and
Methods: This is a retrospective study with patient’s data from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016. We enrolled 436 case of
burn admitted to the Department of Surgery Ganesh, Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur and Associated Lala
Lajpat Rai Hospital, Kanpur. Results: In our study, we enrolled 436 cases out of which females were 66.8% and remaining were
of male 33.2%. Majority of patients were in the age group of 21–30 years age followed by 31–40 years age group. Burn mostly affect
unemployed married female with low socioeconomic strata. In present study, thermal burn was the most common (83%). More
than three fourth of burn cases were accidental in nature followed by suicidal. Conclusion: Even in the era of technological
advancement burn still remain a major issue of concern in most developing countries including India, it predominantly involve
the population from productive age group especially female and mainly accidental in nature.