The blood parameters and liver function changed inconsistently among children between burns and traumatic injuries.

OBJECTIVE

Burn and traumatic injury are two kinds of injury by modality. They cause acute phase response and lead to a series of pathological and physiological changes. In this study, we explored whether there are differences in routine blood parameters and liver enzyme levels between burned and traumatically injured children.

METHODS

Patients under 18 years old with injuries were recruited. Their demographic and clinical data were recorded. Collected clinical data included routine blood parameters (white blood cell count (WBC), red blood cell count (RBC), platelets (PLT), hemoglobin (HB)), serological enzyme levels (alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), glutamyltransferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), cholinesterase (CHE)), and total protein (TP) levels (albumin (ALB), globulin (GLB)). A generalized linear model and multivariate analysis of variance were used to conduct comparisons.

RESULTS

A total of 162 children (109 with burns and 53 with traumatic injuries) with a mean age of 4.36 ± 4.29 years were enrolled in the study. Burned children had higher levels of RBC, HB, WBC, AST and lower levels of TP, CHE, ALB than traumatically injured children ( < 0.05). Moreover, the concentration of WBC and HB was higher in males compared to females ( < 0.001). Conversely, the level of AST and TP in males was lower, AST levels were significantly lower in males ( = 0.005). Age positively correlated with the levels of HB, AST and TP ( < 0.001), and negatively correlated with WBC ( < 0.001). With decreasing body mass index (BMI), the levels of WBC, HB, AST and TP significantly increased in both groups of injured children ( < 0.001). In addition, ISS was positively correlated with WBC and HB levels ( < 0.001), but negatively correlated with AST and TP levels ( < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Children with burn injuries suffered a greater acute response and liver damage than traumatically injured children. This may in part underlie clinical observations of differences in children morbidity and mortality in response to different injury types.