J Korean Burn Soc.  2022 Dec;25(2):25-32. 10.47955/jkbs.22.0012.

Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 on Epidemiological Factors of Burn Patients in Emergency Rooms

• Park Y
• Lee J
• Jung Y
• Lee HJ

• KMID: 2536409
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.47955/jkbs.22.0012

Abstract

Purpose
Due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, many epidemiological and clinical factors of burn patients visiting emergency department (ED) have changed. We theorized that this is because of government’s quarantine regulation and fear of COVID-19 infection.
Methods
This study investigated all burn patients visited ED from January 2018 to December 2021 without exclusion factors. We defined COVID-19 pandemic period from 2020 to 2021. We analyze many variables of burn patients related to social distancing and change of patients’ lifestyle due to COVID-19 outbreak.
Results
The total visit of burn patients from 2018 to 2019 was 1662 and from 2020 to 2021 was 716. There was decrease in rate of admission, follow-up in outpatients and operation. However, there was increase in ratio of burn mechanism and burn causes related to cooking at home such as oil, frying pan and hot pot. Social distancing reduced the rate of burn happened in restaurant and public places but elevated the rate of burn occurred at home. Inhalation related burn rate has increased after COVID-19 outbreak because of increase in time spent indoor than outdoor.
Conclusion
Since COVID-19 infection and quarantine have brought lots of life pattern alterations, the number of burn patients visiting to the ED has reduced and many epidemiology factors of burn have changed. According to these changes, we concluded that COVID-19 worsen the burn injury due to delay in treatment. These findings could be handful in preparing emergency medicine resources for ongoing and future pandemics.

Keyword

COVID-19; Epidemiology; Quarantine