Audit of Admissions and Outcome of Patients with Burns in the Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Background: Oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta region may increase the risk of burns, and may occasionally require admission into the Intensive Unit. The pattern of admission of patients with Burns into the Intensive Care Unit in the hospital does not appear to follow any stipulated guidelines.

Aim: To evaluate the pattern of burns admission in the Intensive Care Unit and to determine if the admissions influenced the outcome.

Materials and Method: A retrospective study of admissions in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was carried out between January 2007 and December 2015. Data on age, sex, type of burns, indication for admission into the ICU, length of stay in the ICU and outcome at the point of discharge of the patients from the ICU was collected. The data was managed using Microsoft Excel version 2013 and analysed using SPSS for windows version 20. Descriptive and analytical statistics based on the observations were generated and presented as considered appropriate.

Results: The total ICU admissions were 1258 out of which 127 (10.09%) were patients with burns, with the male to female ratios of 1:1. The average age was 25.3years. The Burn injuries resulted from explosions of Petroleum product in 55 cases (43.3%). One patient (1.56%) was admitted for hot liquid burns. Majority of the patients were admitted into the ICU because of the severity of injuries, inhalational burns (n= 48; 37.8%) and social reasons (n = 23 (18.1%). The length of stay in the ICU ranged between 1 day and 45 days. Ninety-seven of the admitted patients (76.37%) died in the ICU.

Conclusion: Admissions into the ICU in the Hospital did not follow any identified pattern or followed any stipulated guideline. Mortality for burns patients admitted in ICU was relatively high when related to the total burn surface area. ICU admission of some of the patients did not improve outcome instead increased pressure on the limited available personnel and material.