Child abuse and neglect in paediatric burns: The majority is caused by neglect and thus preventable

Prevalence of non-accidental burns and related factors in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Non-accidental burns (NABs) in children had some adverse effects, such as severe burns, requiring skin grafting, and mortality. Previous studies reported NABs in the form of neglect, suspected abuse, and child abuse. Also, different statistics were estimated for the prevalence of NABs in children. Therefore, the current study aimed to comprehensively review and summarise the literature on the prevalence of NABs in children. Also, factors related to NABs as a secondary aim were considered in this review. Keywords combined using Boolean operators and searches were performed in international electronic databases, such as Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science. Only studies in English were considered from the earliest to 1 March 2023. The analysis was performed using STATA software version 14. Finally, 29 articles were retrieved for the quantitative analysis. Results found that the prevalence of child abuse, suspected abuse, neglect, 'child abuse or suspect abused', and 'abuse, suspect abused, or neglect' was 6% (ES: 0.06, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.05-0.07), 12% (ES: 0.12, 95% CI: 0.09-0.15), 21% (ES: 0.21, 95% CI: 0.07-0.35), 8% (ES: 0.08, 95% CI: 0.07-0.09), and 15% (ES: 0.15, 95% CI: 0.13-0.16) among burns victims, respectively. Also, factors related to NABs are categorised into age and gender, agent and area of burns, and family features. Considering the results of the current study, planning for rapid diagnosis and designing a process to manage NABs in children is necessary.

The clinical characteristics and microbiological investigation of pediatric burn patients with wound infections in a tertiary hospital in Ningbo, China: A ten-year retrospective study

Burn is one of the leading causes of death and disability in children worldwide, and wound infection is an excellent challenge in burn treatment. We performed a retrospective review of pediatric burn patients with wound infections to reveal their clinical data and investigate pathogens' distribution and drug resistance patterns to provide references for treatment. As a result, 330 pediatric burn patients with wound infections were identified; 65.8% (217/330) were < 2 years old. Most of the injuries were scalded and involved <10% total body surface area in size (TBSA), mainly causing II-degree burn and II + III-degree burn. Three hundred and fifty nine strains of pathogens were isolated, the primary pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus (45.4%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18.7%). Both S. aureus and P. aeruginosa isolated from 2012 to 2016 were more likely to be multi-resistant than those isolated from 2017 to 2021, as they were significantly associated with resistance to ≥4 Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) classes (p = 0.040 and 0.006, respectively). In conclusion, children aged <2 years old were the main pediatric burn patients with wound infections. The primary bacteria isolated from the wound were S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, with a decreasing tendency of multi-resistance.