Analysis of burn cases observed after the 2011 Van earthquake

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiological features of cases that were registered for burns and treated at a hospital after the Van earthquake to compare burn cases from the previous year and to determine the factors that influenced mortality. METHODS Patients who were admitted to the Van Region Training and Research Hospital within the 3-month period after the earthquake were categorized as group 1; patients who were admitted within the same time interval in the previous year were categorized as group 2. RESULTS There were 121 patients in Group 1 and 89 patients in Group 2. It was determined that there were 36% more burn cases in Group 1. Flame burns were observed 4.8 times more often in Group 1 compared to Group 1 (p=0.002). Exitus was observed in 25.4% of cases in Group 1 and in 7% of cases in Group 2 (p=0.0069). CONCLUSION It was determined that the number of burn cases registered after the earthquake, the number of flame burns, the percentage of burns and the rate of mortality were higher than the data before the earthquake.