الفهرس 
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Abstract
Burns represent one of the most devastating and horrifying injuries sustained by man. The burn injuries remain a prominent cause of death in civilian life and in modern warfare. Many parameters were established to predict burn severity as well as to assess the morbidity and mortality of burn injuries.
The present study was conducted to study:
1. The patterns of burn injuries.
2. The assessment of severity and outcome of burn injuries.
3. The Prediction of the risk factors of mortality.
The study was carried out on 234 burned patients with different types and severity of burn injuries. They were admitted to the Burn Unit at the Alexandria Main University Hospital from the first of July 2012 till the end of December 2012.
All patients or their relatives were interviewed. Then patients were clinically examined.
The present study showed that the age of patients ranged from 29 days up to 95 years. Nearly one quarter of the burned patients (26.5%) were below 5 years and only 5.1% of them were above 60 years of age. In the present study, males (69.2%) outnumbered females (30.8%) with sex ratio of 2.25:1. 53.8% of the burned patients were living in urban areas.
The present study showed that the majority of patients (91%) were accidentally burned which occurs more likely among males (93.2%). Burns due to assault and self-inflicted burn injuries were encountered in (4.7% and 4.3% of the patients respectively) and occurred more among females (6.9%).A statistically significant association was detected between circumstances of burn and age of burned patients. All patients above 40 years suffered from accidental burns. Self-inflicted were encountered only in the age group 10-<40 years.
Accidental burns occurred more in urban areas (94.4%). While burns due to assault or abuse as well as self-inflicted burns, were more encountered in rural areas. This difference was not statistically significant.
The majority of the patients (67.5%) in the present study were burned at home. A statistically significant association was found between the scene of burn and the age as well as the sex of patients. The highest percentage of those burned at home was less than 20 years. The percentage of females burned at home outnumbered males. The highest mean age of patients occurred among those burned in street (34.94+ 21.74 years), while the lowest mean age was among those burned at home (18.39 + 18.39 years).
All self-inflicted burn injuries occurred at home and nearly all burns at workplaces occurred accidently. However the association between circumstances and scene of burn was not statistically significant.
As regard the cause of burn injuries in the present study, 53.4% of burn injuries were flame burns, 34.2% were scalds, 8.5% were electrical burns, 3% of burns were due to radiation and only 0.9% was corrosive and chemical burns. A statistical significant association was found between the cause of burn and the age, where 60.0% of all scalds occurred in children below 5 years. All corrosive and chemical burns occurred in age group ≥30 years.