Plastic surgery department, Rwanda Military Hospital, Kigali, Rwanda..
Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; WHO Collaborating Centre for Surgery and Public Health, Lund University, Skane University Hospital, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund, Sweden.
J Surg Res. 2021 Oct;266:113-124. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2021.03.055. Epub 2021 May 11.
Burns are a global public health concern, with the majority of the disease burden affecting low- and middle-income countries. Yet, as suggested by previous publications, there is a widespread belief that literature about burns in low- and middle-income countries is lacking. Therefore, we aimed to assess with a scoping review, the extent of the literature output on burns in East Africa, and to investigate patient demographics, injury characteristics, treatment and outcomes, as reported from the existing publications.
Studies discussing burns in East Africa were identified by searching PubMed / Medline (National Library of Medicine), EMBASE (Elsevier), Global Health Database (EBSCO), and Global Index Medicus on December 12, 2019. Controlled vocabulary terms (i.e., MeSH, EMTREE, Global Health thesaurus terms) were included when available and appropriate. No year restrictions were applied.
A total of 1,044 records were retrieved from the database searches, from which 40 articles from 6 countries published between 1993 and 2019 were included in the final review. No studies were found from five East African countries with the lowest GDP. Most papers focused on pediatric trauma patients or tertiary hospital settings. The total number of burn patients recorded was 44,369, of which the mean proportion of males was 56%. The most common cause of injury was scalds (61%), followed by open flame (17%). Mortality rate ranged from 0-67%. The mean length of stay in hospital was between 9-60 d.
Burn data is limited in the East African region, with socio-economically weak countries being particularly underrepresented. This scoping review has identified the largest set of literature on burns in East Africa to date, indicating the importance of reviewing data at a regional or local level, as "global" studies tend to be dominated by high-income country data. Data collection in specific registries is needed to better characterize the exact burden of burn injuries in East Africa.
烧伤是全球公共卫生关注的一个问题，大多数疾病负担都集中在中低收入国家。然而，正如之前的出版物所表明的那样，人们普遍认为，中低收入国家关于烧伤的文献是缺乏的。因此，我们旨在通过范围综述来评估东非地区烧伤文献的数量，并调查现有出版物中报告的烧伤患者的人口统计学、损伤特征、治疗和结果。
通过在 2019 年 12 月 12 日在 PubMed / Medline（美国国家医学图书馆）、EMBASE（爱思唯尔）、全球健康数据库（EBSCO）和全球医学索引（Global Index Medicus）上搜索，确定了讨论东非烧伤的研究。当有合适的控制词汇（即 MeSH、EMTREE、全球健康主题词）时，将包括这些词汇。没有应用年份限制。
从数据库搜索中检索到 1044 条记录，其中 40 篇来自 6 个国家的文章于 1993 年至 2019 年发表，被纳入最终综述。在 GDP 最低的五个东非国家中，没有找到研究报告。大多数论文都集中在儿科创伤患者或三级医院环境。记录的烧伤患者总数为 44369 人，其中男性的平均比例为 56%。最常见的损伤原因是烫伤（61%），其次是明火（17%）。死亡率范围从 0%到 67%。平均住院时间为 9-60 天。
东非地区的烧伤数据有限，社会经济薄弱的国家代表性特别不足。这一范围综述确定了迄今为止东非地区最大的烧伤文献集，这表明在区域或地方一级审查数据的重要性，因为“全球”研究往往以高收入国家的数据为主。需要在特定登记处收集数据，以更好地描述东非地区烧伤损伤的确切负担。
