[Assessing Ten Years of Activity in the First Burns Unit of Central Africa. Operational experience from the burns unit of the Military Teaching Hospital Omar Bongo Ondimba].

Abstract

A burn is an acute, more or less complete destruction of the skin covering by a thermal, chemical or electrical source. It causes significant morbidity and mortality and requires specialized care that is often very expensive for the people exposed to it. Our objective is to describe the epidemiological characteristics of seriously burned patients admitted to the Army training hospital Omar Bongo Ondimba Burn Center. Our work is a retrospective study of patients admitted for serious burns and who received treatment in the burn center of the Omar Bongo Ondimba Army Training Hospital in Libreville over a period of time of 10 years from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2022. During the period, 214 patients were admitted with an average frequency of 22 patients per year. The average age was 28 years with the extremes of 1 month and 100 years. The male gender made up 56.5%. Domestic accidents represented 74.3%, work accidents 11.7% and accident on the public highway 5.6% of cases. The burn was thermal in 90.7%, electrical in 11.7%, chemical in 1.4% and immunological in 1.9% of cases. Their depth was mainly second degree, with an average extent of 41.5%. The BAUX index was on average 67.8% and the most common ABSI score was between 6-7. The average length of hospitalization was 11 days. The evolution was favorable in 45.8% of cases with a mortality of 50.9%. Burns pose a public health problem in developing countries. Knowledge of the epidemiological profile makes it possible to put in place means of prevention and adequate care.