Study Design:

 We are proposing to carry out a retrospective chart review study of all burn patients’ records treated at AUBMC between January 1, 2003 and December 18, 2013. The AUBMC medical records department will be contacted and asked to provide us with a list of all patients who were admitted to AUBMC through the ED and who have the ICD code in their discharged summaries for the specified period above.

Primary objective:

Describe the characteristics of burn patients presenting to AUB-MC, such as demographics, injury patterns, clinical characteristics, management interventions.

Secondary objectives:

1-      Identify predictors of burn outcomes, such as:

a.       Demographic characteristics (Gender, age, socioeconomic status, etc)

b.      History of morbidities

c.       Injury related factors (Type of injury, and injury severity)

d.      EMS factors (Method of transportation, time from injury)

e.       Clinical factors, mainly vital signs (Blood pressure, temperature, respiratory rate, burn percentage, Glascow Coma Scale)

f.       Clinical interventions and fluid resuscitation

2-      Assess outcomes in different subgroups, mainly: death, morbidity, as well as admission status to different levels of care

3-      Estimate the financial burden of burns on affected victims

Data Collection methods, instruments used, measurements:

A data collection form was developed for the purpose of this study, taking into consideration data elements included in international burn studies and registries.  Following is a brief description of the different sections of the form:

1-      Demographic information

2-      Injury related information

3-      Patient related information

4-      ED evaluation and workup

5-      Hospital course

6-      Disposition and outcomes

(Each patient will require at least 2 hours for each data entry sheet to be filled, so practically 2000 hours of work)

All patients who were treated for burn-related injuries during the study period will be considered eligible for enrollment in this study.  

Sample Size: 

As for the sample size, no statistical sample size calculation was carried out because this study will serve as a foundation for addressing several objectives relating to trauma events at AUBMC, rather than being a study to answer a specific question. Nevertheless, an estimated 1000 charts will be included. This sample size was selected to make sure that enough power can be achieved to test different hypotheses.  Finally, to achieve the proposed sample size, the study period of 10 years is needed based on our estimation of 100 eligible patients per year.

Sampling Technique:

There will be no sampling carried out for the purpose of this study, as all eligible patients during the study period will be included.