Pediatric hand and finger burns occurred most frequently in young children from the oven and/or stove, according to a study published in the Journal of Burn Care & Research. Investigators examined the epidemiological characteristics of pediatric patients presenting for emergency care of hand and finger burns within the US. They conducted a cross-sectional study of patients reported to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2019. Patients included in the study were younger than 18 and evaluated for an isolated hand or finger burn. US Census data from the same period were utilized for determining epidemiological estimates of injury incidence. During the 10-year study, an estimated 300,245 pediatric hand and finger burns were treated in 778,497,380 person- years, an incidence rate of 38.6 burns per 100,000 person years. Most treated burns occurred in the 1- to 2-year age group (28.3%), with an ap- proximate 50% reduction in incidence for each 1-year age stratum until stabilizing at 6 years. Most burns occurred in White children (58%), but Black children had a higher incidence than White children when corrected for US population (45.15 burns vs 21.45 burns per 100,000 person- years). The most common etiology was a stove or oven (1,595/10,420; 15%). “We urge that parents be assertively counseled about potential burn risks to their young children’s hands and fingers, especially once they reach ambulatory age,” the study authors wrote.
