Conservative treatment of 725 burned children hospitalized in 10 years.

Seven hundred and twenty-five children were hospitalized in the paediatric burn unit of Brugmann University Hospital during the past 10 years. The majority of the patients were under 5 years of age and presented with scalds on less than 10 per cent of the body surface area. As burn depth was difficult to assess on admission, a conservative form of treatment was performed including a daily bath containing chlorhexidine and silver sulphadiazine dressings. Contamination of the wounds was observed in 80 per cent of the larger than 20 per cent surface burns but only 18 cases (2.4 per cent) of the series needed administration of systemic antibiotics for repeated contamination. No lethal septicaemia was observed. Mean inpatient time ranged between 16 days for ungrafted patients to 69 days for over 20 per cent surface grafted patients. The lower iatrogenic risks (anaesthesia and donor site morbidity) seemed important enough to justify conservative treatment in children despite a slightly longer hospitalization time.