G. Pédrono

Causes of burn based on hospitals reports in mainland France in 2014

Introduction Burns are defined as an injury to the skin or other organic tissue primarily caused by thermal or other acute trauma. Every year in France, burns are responsible for several hundreds of deaths and about 11,500 hospitalizations. Furthermore, burns often result in heavy physical, psychological or social sequelae. They are one of the most expensive traumatic injuries due to costly wound treatment and very long care (hospitalization and rehabilitation). Prevention of burns is therefore a necessity. In order to prevent burns, knowledge about their causes is essential. There is a lack of large-scale results about causes of burns in France. Therefore, the aim of this work it to analyze causes of burns in mainland France in 2014, using data from the hospital nationwide database - “Programme de medicalisation des systemes d’information (PMSI)”. Coding of causes is expected to present high-quality because three French agencies “Agence technique de l’information sur l’hospitalisation” - (ATIH), “Societe francaise de brulologie” (SFB) [formerly “Societe francaise d’etude et de traitement des brulures” (SFETB)] and “Sante publique France” [formerly “Institut de veille sanitaire” (InVS)] implemented in 2011 a thesaurus of burns causes in order to facilitate and harmonize the coding in the PMSI and make it mandatory in 2013. Methods Analyses were performed on first hospital stays in a burn center, in 2014 in mainland France, registered in the PMSI database with a principal diagnosis of burns, coded from T20 to T32 in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD10), and at least one associated diagnosis mentioning a cause of burn. Data collected for patients whatever the age included: demographics, circumstances (accident, assault, suicide attempt), etiology (scald, contact, fire and flames, radiation, electrical, chemical). Results In 2014 in mainland France, 2712 patients were hospitalized in a burn center and presented information regarding the cause of burn, 61.5% were men, mean/median age of 31/28 years. Burns occurred mostly in accidental circumstances (93.7% of patients) and are more rarely due to suicide attempt (4.9%) or assault (1.4%). Half of accidental burns were scald (50.8%), 27.2% fire and flame burns, 8% contact burns, 4.5% chemical burns, other etiologies are scarcer. Causes of burns varied according to age and sex. Scald was the first cause of burns for children (83.8% for boys and 88.2% for girls among 0–4 years) and for women whatever the age. Fire and flames burns were the first cause of burns for men after 15 (42.6% among 15–59 years, 56% among 60 years and older). Conclusions For the first time in France, this study provides results about causes of burns at a large-scale. In spite of numerous prevention measures, burns and in particular scald, are very frequent in France. Further research aiming at improving knowledge about causes of burns could be useful to better target prevention measures. Moreover, a precise evaluation of prevention measures already implemented could be useful.

Sports-related traumatic deaths in mainland France in 2016

Introduction Although it is recognized that physical exercise is beneficial for health, by increasing the quality of life, by preventing the occurrence of chronic diseases and improving mental health, sport, can also be responsible for serious injuries which some may lead to death. A first estimation of these sports-related traumatic deaths was led in 2010: 246 deaths; the purpose of this work is to update it. Methods The sources for data collection were: media data sources (Internet, regional daily press), websites of sport federations or association and public agencies involved in sport, collection of firefighters public institution and the ministry of Sports. The death had to be caused by an injury during sport practice from the 1st of January up to the 31st of December 2016 in mainland France. Occupational injuries were not included, cycling, walking and bathing-related deaths were not included unless the notion of sport practice was clearly mentioned. Sports were categorized in seven groups: aircraft motorized sports, aircraft non-motorized sports, hunting, watersports, mechanical sports, mountain sports, other sports. Results In total, 277 sports-related deaths were identified for the year 2016, which represents nearly 5 deaths per week in mainland France. They were mostly men with 87% of deaths (sex ratio M/F of 6.5). They were mostly adults between 30 and 70 years old (66%). 52% of deaths occurred during summertime (June–September), 34% occurred on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). Deaths most often occurred during mountain sports (45%), water sports (16%), aircraft non-motorized sports (11%), aircraft motorized sports (9%), mechanical sports (8%), hunting (4%) and other sports (6%). Conclusions This work has provided an estimate of the number sports-related traumatic deaths in mainland France. Within the limits of the collection method, this number was 277 in 2016. The sports leading to the greatest number of deaths were middle and high mountain sports and water sports. Some cases may have not been collected because of technical difficulties of access to information media, but also when the victims died later after hospitalization, the fate of the victim is not always reported in the media. Similar work was conducted in prospective for the year 2017, in order to access the information media in real time. It will allow minimizing bias of disappearance of online information. Data collection on the circumstances of the accident which led to the death, the risk factors of the person and his environment, his/her level and his/her practice, etc. could provide information to elaborate prevention programs.