The epidemiology of patients with burn injuries admitted to Norwegian hospitals in 2007

ObjectivesTo study the incidence and outcome of burns in Norway in 2007, and to establish estimates for effective length of stay, mortality and economical costs.MethodsData from the Norwegian Patient Registry on all patients discharged from all somatic hospitals in Norway in 2007 with main or subsidiary diagnosis of burn injury (ICD-10: T20–31) were collected.ResultsSeven hundred and twenty-six patients (65.0% male) with acute burns were admitted to Norwegian hospitals in 2007, requiring 8157 in-hospital days and resulting in a mean length of hospitalization per burn case of 11.3 days (S.D. 15.2). The mean age of the patients was 26.9 years (S.D. 25.5), and the mortality was 2.1%. For children below 5 years of age the incidence of burns admitted to hospital was 82.5/100,000/year. The annual total cost for in-hospital burn care exceeded €10.5 million (€2,200,000/million inhabitants)ConclusionCompared to similar data from Norway (1992) the rate of admission for burns in 2007 (15.5/100,000/year) appeared as high as in 1992, whereas the mean length of stay was reduced by 26%. Children under the age of 5 had a seven times higher incidence compared the rest of the population.