Intentional injuries and patient survival of burns: A 10-year retrospective cohort in southern Brazil

• We describe the epidemiology of a 10-year cohort of burns in southern Brazil.
• Intentional burns deserve more investigation in Brazil and Latin America.
• We describe the main risk factors associated to intentional burns.
• We compare survival between different types of injury in multivariable analysis.
• Self-inflicted injuries were independently associated with a higher risk of death.

BackgroundPatients burned intentionally experience extensive injuries with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Nonetheless, there is no consensus if these patients have worse outcomes than unintentional burns considering injury severity and other preexistent comorbidities.MethodsWe conducted a ten-year retrospective review on all patients treated at the Burn Unit of Hospital de Pronto Socorro, Porto Alegre, Brazil, between 2003 and 2012. The aim was to compare survival of self-inflicted burns and burns from assaults with unintentional injuries using a Multivariable Cox Regression Analysis.Results1734 patients were included in the study, 87.7% non-intentional, 6.6% self-inflicted and 5.8% from aggression. Intentional injuries resulted in more severe injuries and were associated with psychiatric disorders and drug abuse. After controlling for injury severity, previous clinical comorbidities and previous psychiatric disorders, only self-inflicted burns correlated significantly with a higher risk of death (HR = 1.59, CI 95% 1.05–2.41, p = 0.03).ConclusionsSelf-inflicted injuries were independently associated with a higher risk of death. Burns from aggression were not associated with higher mortality in this model. Prevention of these injuries must be priority and treating the main associated factors such as drug abuse and psychiatric disorders may lower its occurrence.