Symptoms vary depending on the chemical, the part of the body affected, and the duration of the exposure to the chemical. Chemical burns can occur in the home, work, school, or as a result of accident or assault. INTRODUCTION Chemical Burns: Magnitude of the ProblemĪ chemical burn is irritation and destruction of human tissue caused by exposure to a chemical, usually by direct contact with the chemical or its fumes. But the current study showed that only a small population (3.5%) were affected by chemical burns and no death was recorded society has to be continually conscious of chemicals, especially caustic agents, and hence take the necessary precautions so as to prevent these avoidable complications. Conclusions:Ĭhemical burns are severe and often cause severe debilitating sequelae including partial/total loss of vision. The complications included severe scar contractures in 5 patients (29.4%), loss of vision: partial/total = 2 (11.8%), gross keloidal/hypertrophic scars = 10 (58.8%). Outcome included 11 discharges (64.7%), 6 transferred out to other wards (35.3%), and 0 deaths (0.0%). accounted for 4 (23.5%) etiological agents. The etiological agents for the chemical burns included the following: hot caustic soda 1 (5.9%) acid 9 (53.9%)-the most common hot ethanol 3 (17.6%) and other chemicals such as other bases, oxidizers, solvents, etc. Mean total burns surface area was 21.9% mean length of stay in Burns Intensive Care Unit was 9.5 days. Results:Ĭhemical burns admissions accounted for 3.5% ( n = 17) out of the total 487 burns cases, consisting of 12 males (70.6%) and 5 females (29.4%). The study involved a retrospective review of Burns Registry at the Burns Intensive Care Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital on patients who were admitted for burns from to April 30, 2013. The study investigated the trend and complications following chemical burns and their management. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.Ī chemical burn refers to irritation and destruction of human tissue caused by exposure to a chemical, usually by direct contact with the chemical or its fumes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. Pius Agbenorku, MD, PhD, FPCS(Plast), FICS, FWACS, FGCS, University P.O. The remainder of the Article Processing Charge was paid for by the authors. A portion of the Article Processing Charge was paid for by PRS Global Open at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Received for publication Novemaccepted August 28,2015.ĭisclosure: The authors have no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article. From the *Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit, Department of Surgery, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana †Department of Surgery, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana and ‡Department of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana.
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