Sustained high demand for intensive care unit resources for the treatment of burn patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Germany: A single-centre cross-sectional study.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has changed everyday life worldwide. To reduce disease transmission, governments introduced various policies such as social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and travel restrictions. The goal of this study was to investigate the characteristics of burn patients admitted to the burn intensive care unit before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A retrospective descriptive analysis of the hospital's burn registry was performed from 1 March 2019 until 1 January 2022. A total of 326 patients were included in this study. Eighty-eight patients presented before and 238 patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of burns occurred during private incidents (80% [2022], 92% [2020]), and burns were most frequently caused by flames (24% [2022], 32.99% [2021]). Work-related injuries occurred less frequently (7.76% [2020], 20% [2022]). Constant results were obtained regarding severity and total body surface area affected (1-80%). This study highlights high numbers of burn patients admitted to the burn intensive care unit before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, burn intensive care units must retain their special position within the national health system and should not be included in resource relocation during the prioritisation of intensive care resources. Multicentre studies should focus on the national impact of COVID-19 on the treatment of burn patients.

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© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The author and co-authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the results reported in this manuscript.