Disclosures: Eunyeop Kim, BA: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Background and/or Objectives: To analyze amputations in electrical burn survivors and assess their corresponding long-term physical and mental effects.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: Burn Model System (BMS) National Database.

Participants: A total of 6749 eligible burn patients consented to the study. The data contained 408 electrical etiology patients and 6341 non-electrical etiology burn patients.

Interventions: not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Amputation rate, total burn surface area, Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey (VR12), and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System 29 (PROMIS29) collected at pre-burn, discharge, 6-month post-burn, 12-month post-burn, 24-month post-burn, and 5-year post-burn.

Results: Electrical burn patients showed a higher amputation rate (30.3%) than non-electrical burn patients (6.6%). The average total burn surface area for non-electrical etiology burn survivors with amputations was 41.5% and the average total burn surface area for electrical burn survivors with amputations was 21.1% (p-value < 0.0001). Electrical burn patients with amputation had a lower physical component score and physical function score than electrical burn patients without amputation at discharge (p-value=0.03). While no differences were seen between electrical patients with or without amputation, non-electrical etiology burn survivors with amputations experienced significantly higher pain interference, prolonged physical struggle, and lowered social role scores than non-electrical etiology burn survivors. No significant differences were found in the mental component, anxiety, depression, sleep, and fatigue scores between patients regardless of burn type or amputations.

Conclusions: Electrical burn patients were more likely to undergo amputation than non-electrical burn patients. As electrical burn survivors with amputations experience worse physical function at discharge, long-term rehabilitation plans should be implemented early in treatment for this population, particularly from the acute phase to discharge. Regardless of burn type or amputation, all burn patients need psychological and social support. Patients with non-electrical burn etiology with amputations had significantly more challenges than having burn injuries or amputations from electrical etiology, thus requiring the most attention.

Level of Evidence: Level II

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/outcomes-of-amputations-following-electrical-burn-injuries-a-five-year-follow-up/