Epidemiology of burns presenting to an accident and emergency department.

Abstract

The survey was undertaken in order to review the circumstances surrounding accidents that precipitated burn injuries which, presented to an inner city accident department. Figures are available of the number of bums seen in Plastic Surgical units (Bumcare Symposium, 1986), and of the number of burns occurring at home (Consumer Safety Unit, 1986), however, there is no published work documenting patients with bum injuries attending an A&E department in this country, except indirectly in articles dealing with injuries to particular regions of the body, e.g. the hand (Cutting et al., 1987), or with particular causes and types of burns (Bull et al., 1964).