OBJECTIVETo investigate the pathogenic and clinical characteristics of chemical burns in recent years, so as to provide reference for its prevention and treatment.

METHODSMedical records of patients with chemical burns out of 6299 burn patients admitted to our unit from January 1992 to December 2011 were screened and retrospectively analyzed, including gender, age, onset time of the injury, pre-hospital management, injury cause, injury-causing chemicals, body site of wound, burn area and depth, complications, treatment and follow-up results. The data of age distribution and incidence of complications were processed with chi-square test.

RESULTSInvestigation showed that 605 out of 6299 burn patients (accounting for 9.60%) were chemically injured. (1) Among the patients with chemical burns, the ratio of male to female was 5.11:1.00, with the mean age of 37.6 years, and the highest incidence occurred in patients aged from 20 to 29 years (29.42%, 178/605). The difference in the numbers of patients among different age groups was statistically significant (χ(2) = 207.298, P < 0.01). (2) Chemical burns mainly occurred in summer (28.43%, 172/605) and autumn (38.35%, 232/605). About 72.07% (436/605) of patients received irrigation before admission. (3) In 453 (74.88%) patients, injury occurred during industrial production. The main injury-causing chemicals were acid (46.61%, 282/605) and alkali (20.66%, 125/605), and among them the sulfuric acid accounted for the highest ratio (18.18%, 110/605). (4) The main wound positions of chemical burns were the limbs (289 patients) and the head, face, and neck region (263 patients). The mean burn area was 5.98% TBSA. The depth ranged from superficial partial-thickness to full-thickness. (5) Three hundred and forty-eight patients with chemical burns suffered common complications, including inhalation injury (154, 44.25%), ocular burns (113, 32.47%), and poisoning (81, 23.28%). There was statistically significant difference in the incidence of the three complications (χ(2) = 23.086, P < 0.01). (6) Five hundred and twenty-one patients were cured, with the cure rate of 86.12%, and 76.20% out of them healed with scars (397/521). Three patients died of poisoning, with a mortality of 0.50%.

CONCLUSIONSThe patients with chemical burns accounted for a high proportion of the burn patients admitted to our unit in the same period. The chemical burns mainly involved young males with the relatively close time of onset, and acid and alkali were the main causative factors in the process of industrial production. Most patients had the clinical features of deep wound, high incidence of complications, and liability of scar formation after wound healing.