The management of small area burns and unexpected post-burn illness in children under five years of age - A costing study in the English healthcare setting

摘要

The objective of this economic study was to evaluate the resource use and cost associated with the management of small area burn injuries, including the additional costs associated with unexpected post-burn illness in children of less than five years of age. This study was conducted as a secondary analysis of a multi-centre prospective observational cohort study investigating the physiological response to burn injury in children. 452 children were included in the economic analysis (median age=1.60 years, 61.3% boys, median total burn surface area [TBSA] =1.00%) with a mean length of stay of 0.69 days. Of these children, 21.5% re-presented to medical care with an unexpected illness withinfourteen days of injury. The cost of managing a burn of less than 10% TBSA in a child less than five years of age was £785. The additional cost associated with the management of post-burn illness was £1,381. A generalised linear regression model was used to determine the association between an unexpected post-burn illness, presenting child characteristics and NHS cost. Our findings may be of value to those planning economic evaluations of novel technologies in burn care.