Only one previous case report has described scald burns secondary to hair braiding in pediatric patients. The present case study is the largest to date of scald burns as a result of hair braiding in children and adults. Charts of all 1609 female patients seen at a single burn center from 2008 to 2014 were retrospectively reviewed to identify patients with scald burns attributed to hair braiding. Demographics, injury severity, injury patterns, and complications were analyzed. Twenty-six patients (1.6%) had scald burns secondary to hair braiding with median TBSA 3%. Eighty-five percent of patients were pediatric with median age 8 years. Injury patterns were as follows: back (62%), shoulder (31%), chest (15%), buttocks (15%), abdomen (12%), arms (12%), neck (12%), and legs (4%). No patients required operative intervention. Three patients were admitted to the hospital. Two patients required time off from school for 6 and 10 days post burn for recovery. Complications included functional limitations (n = 2), hypertrophic scarring (n = 1), cellulitis requiring antibiotics (n = 1), and anxiety requiring medical/psychological therapy (n = 2). This peculiar mechanism of injury not only carries inherent morbidity that includes the risks of functional limitations, infection, and psychological repercussions but also increases usage of resources through hospital admissions and multiple clinic visits. Further work in the form of targeted outreach programs is necessary to educate the community regarding this preventable mechanism of injury.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 14 February 2016.
All research outputs
#23,374,475
of 34,518,147 outputs
Outputs from Journal of burn care & research
#1,017
of 2,103 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#281,275
of 446,984 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of burn care & research
#56
of 133 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,518,147 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,103 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.7. This one is in the 49th percentile – i.e., 49% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 446,984 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 36th percentile – i.e., 36% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 133 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 53% of its contemporaries.
