Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Burn is a start of a disastrous situation for the person, family and society and includes a high percentage of the accidents. Acid burns which is on the rise, leaves lifetime damage on the patient’s appearance. Thus in order to reduce the acid attacks in the society necessary measures must be taken. This study was performed to evaluate the demographic information about burns resulting from acid attacks and its comparison with those resulting from accidents.

Methods: In this cross sectional study the information of 171 patients who were admitted with acid burns to Motahari hospital in Tehran between 2006-2011was evaluated.

Results: There were 42 (24.6%) women, and 129 (75.4%) men with the mean age of 22 years (SD = 15). Also 152 cases (88.9%) of acid burns were accidentally and 19 (11.1%) were on purpose. There were significant statistical differences between the method of acid burn and the place where it happened (p value= 0.012) and the method of acid burn and gender (p value = 0.03). Also the percentage of burns in expired patients was significantly higher than discharged patients (p value < 0.001).

Conclusions: In our study burns resulting from burning chemicals was higher in men than women with mortality rate of 9.9%, which was higher than what 2 other similar studies reported in Iran.