Journal of Surgery and Trauma

en Epidemiology of Chemical Burn Injuries in a Tertiary Burn Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study جراحی عمومی General Surgery پژوهشي Research Background and Objective: Chemical burns can cause serious skin damage, affecting human organs and leading to aesthetic and functional problems. Most patients need costly therapeutic interventions. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiology of chemical burns among patients admitted to the largest burn center in Iran. Methods: A cross- sectional retrospective study was conducted on patients with chemical burns from March 2022 to June 2023 at Motahari Burn Hospital. Demographic data, burn characteristics, therapeutic interventions, and hospital courses of all patients with burns due to acid, alkaline, and caustic materials were collected. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 22.0) and t-test and one-way analysis of variance.  The significance level was P ˂ 0.05 Results: The prevalence of chemical burns was %5.1 of all admitted burn patients during one year, which is higher than the global average. The mean age of the patients was 32.18 ± 19.12 years, and most of the patients were male (69.4%). Most injuries were due to accidental events (86.7%), and 62.2% of chemical burns occurred at home. The most common chemical substance was acid (60.2%). Over 87% of victims had less than 20% total body surface area (TBSA) involvement. Limbs were injured in 91.8% of cases. The mortality rate was 3.1%. The difference in mean hospital stay duration between accidental and intentional burns was significant (P = 0.020). A significant difference was also found in mean TBSA% across causative agent groups (P = 0.048). Conclusion: In our study, chemical burns were a small proportion of burn injuries, most of which occurred at home. The incidence of acid violence has not reduced compared to previous studies at our center. The majority of these injuries are preventable.   Chemical burns, Epidemiology, Injuries 79 85 http://jsurgery.bums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-461-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Seyed Hamid Salehi hamidsalehi64@gmail.com 100319475328460012538 100319475328460012538 Yes Burn Research Center, Motahari Burn Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Kamran Asadi asadi_km@yahoo.com 100319475328460012539 100319475328460012539 No Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, St Fatima Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Shadi Karami shadi.karami73@gmail.com 100319475328460012540 100319475328460012540 No Department of Anesthesiology and Pain, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Seyyed Amirhossein Salehi ahsalehi99@gmail.com 100319475328460012541 100319475328460012541 No Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali Akbar Jafarian aajafari41@gmail.com 100319475328460012542 100319475328460012542 No Department of Surgery, Motahari Burn Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran