[Not Available].

BACKGROUND

In 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières opened the Arche Kigobe Trauma Centre in Bujumbura, Burundi, to treat victims of violence, and in 2016 extended the admission criteria to burns, without a specialised unit to treat these.

OBJECTIVE

To study the factors associated with an unfavourable outcome (death, referrals and discharges against medical advice) in burn patients hospitalised at this centre.

METHOD

This is a retrospective descriptive and analytical study of hospitalised burn patients.

RESULTS

From 2016 to 2020, 477 patients were hospitalised at the Centre for burns, of whom 301 (63%) were less than 5 years old, 169 (35%) were female, and 48 (10%) had an unfavourable outcome. Anaemia (OR 11, 95% CI 2.7-48), infection (OR 11, 95% CI 5.7-22), and smoke inhalation (OR 28, 95% CI 7-111) were among the main factors associated with an unfavourable outcome.

CONCLUSION

To minimise adverse outcomes related to inhalation and infection in burn patients, a septic isolation circuit, training, a bacteriology service and continuous positive airway pressure could be implemented even in resource-limited settings.