**1. Introduction**

Burns are often called one of the most devastating types of trauma in medicine because their consequences have physical and mental dimensions.

Severe burns can cause death. Physical consequences of nonfatal burns include scars, contractures, and keloids. The victims suffer due to disfigurement and disability often leading to stigma and rejection by the society. Among mental consequences of burns are, for example, low self-esteem, depression, or anxiety.

Burns are type of trauma that can be caused by thermal energy, chemical agents, electricity, or radiation. According to the World Health Organization, burn is an injury to the skin or other

organic tissues primarily caused by heat or due to radiation, radioactivity, electricity, friction, or contact with chemicals.

The detailed analysis of the thermal burns of upper limbs revealed that the hand and wrist were more often affected than forearm, arm, and shoulder. However, the detailed analysis of the thermal burns of lower limbs revealed that the injury affected more often the hip, tight,

Problem of Burns in Children: Opportunities for Health Improvement

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Most of patients under 18 years old treated by GP due to burns in Lower Silesia of children were under 2 years old [6]. Moreover, in the studied population, the percentage of children hospitalized due to burns in Lower Silesia in 2010 according to individual age groups in age group under 2 years old was 0.5%, in children from 3 to 6 years old was 0.12%, in children from 7 to 12 years old was 0.06%, in children from 13 to 15 years old was 0.07%, and in children from 16 to 18 years old was 0.06% [5]. Similarly in the studied population, percentage of children hospitalized due to burns in Lower Silesia in 2011 according to individual age groups in age group under 2 years old was 0.54%, in children from 3 to 6 years old was 0.13%, in children from 7 to 12 years old was 0.06%, in children from 13 to 15 years old was 0.07%,

The chemical injuries were less common in pediatric population of Lower Silesia in the analyzed period of time. However, it was noticed that this type of burns more frequently affects

The obtained results are coherent with other studies realized in Polish pediatric population [7].

Apart from the mechanism of injury, usually four criteria are taken into account: depth of injury, percent of body surface area involved, location of the burn, and association with other injuries [4].

According to the etiological factor (factor that caused the burn injury), we can distinguish

The most common types of burns in children are thermal burns. Thermal injuries are caused by heat. They can be the result of hot liquids (scalds), hot solids (contact burns), and flames (flame burns). In pediatric population, especially in children under 2 years old, the most com-

Anatomic location is important in triage decision [4]. Burns can affect all parts of the body: head, neck, trunk, upper and lower extremities, perineum, and upper anterior abdominal wall

International Classification of the Disease (ICD) is used by physicians, nurses, health-care providers, and researchers to classify the diseases and other health-care problems. It facilitated the comparison of date between different regions and is widely used for epidemiological purposes.

knee, and lower leg than ankle and feet [5].

and in children from 16 to 18 years old was 0.08% [5].

the upper gastrointestinal tract than thermal burns [5, 6].

There are many ways in which burn injury can be classified.

thermal, electrical, and chemical injury and burns caused by radiation.

**3. Classifications of burns**

**3.1. Etiologic factor of injury**

mon type of burns is scalds.

**3.2. Location of injury**

(**Figures 1**–**3**).

According to Juan P. Barret, trauma can be defined as bodily injury severe enough to pose a threat to life, limbs, tissues, and organs, but burn injury is different, because unlike other traumas, it can be quantified as to the exact percentage of body injured and can be viewed as a paradigm of injury from which many lessons can be learned about critical illness involving multiple organ systems [1].
