Incidence of mortality in boys and girls after severe thermal burns.

One hundred and eighty-five children with burns, 118 boys and 67 girls, all of whom had thermal burns covering more than 30 per cent of the body surface area without complications from inhalation injury, were studied to determine whether boys or girls better survive massive skin burns and if a high mortality group within these populations could be identified. A significantly higher mortality rate (15 per cent) was noted for boys when compared with girls (3 per cent), with 44 per cent of the deaths in boys identified in the greater than 95th percentile body weight-for-age distribution.