[Undetected Cases of Non-Accidental Burns in Children - Preventive Strategies].

Background: Thermal injuries are a frequent cause of accidents within the pediatric population that may result in long periods of hospitalization as well as severe physical and mental impairment and lifelong consequences. Especially in infants, burns caused by scalding are the most common cause of injury. Beside accidental injuries, intential burns may also occur. It is of utmost importance to differentiate between intentional and accidental burns, yet the distinction can be very demanding for physicians, nurses and social workers.

Methods: In this retrospective multicenter study, thermally inflicted burns in Germany were analyzed over a period of 10 years.

Results: Data of 13.353 pediatric patients with thermal injuries from 32 hospitals were analyzed within the period of 2006 to 2015. The study results show that 0,5% of all burns were inflicted. This percentage seems to be an inadequate represention as compared to reported international surveys, which report an average of 10% of all burns being inflicted in pediatric patients.

Discussion: When comparing our results to international survey results, it can be assumed that a large number of child abuse cases go undetected within the German pediatric population. In particular awareness of intentional burns needs to be raised and detection strategies, as presented in this paper, implemented.

Conclusion: In the future, a more precise collection of data of burned children is necessary to illustrate the true number of intentional pediatric burns in Germany. This has been implemented by the renewed pediatric burn registry of the German Society for Burn Treatment (DGV) and the working group "The severely burned child".