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Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure

Objectives: To reduce the annual incidence of hot water bottle burns by reviewing cases, classifying injury, invoking a multimedia campaign to increase public awareness. To stimulate state, federal, and international government review of manufacturing standards with a view to reinforcing legislation...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Whittam, Alex, Wilson, Ailsa, Greenwood, John E.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Open Science Company, LLC 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808054/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20090860
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author Whittam, Alex
Wilson, Ailsa
Greenwood, John E.
author_facet Whittam, Alex
Wilson, Ailsa
Greenwood, John E.
author_sort Whittam, Alex
collection PubMed
description Objectives: To reduce the annual incidence of hot water bottle burns by reviewing cases, classifying injury, invoking a multimedia campaign to increase public awareness. To stimulate state, federal, and international government review of manufacturing standards with a view to reinforcing legislation. Methods: A multimedia warning was launched following the scalding death of an elderly lady. Our database allowed identification of all patients injured by hot water bottles; their medical notes were thoroughly reviewed. Results: The review divided cases into bottle failure and/or patient misuse. Early legislation in New Zealand resulted in bottle withdrawal from sale, mirrored by recent legislation in Australia. Legislation and the multimedia campaign have seen admissions from hot water bottle burns markedly decreased. Conclusions: Thorough audit of specific burn etiologies, with effective broadcasting of hazard, can result in reduction or abolition of future injury from that source and may prompt appropriate legislation to further protect the general public.
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spelling pubmed-28080542010-01-20 Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure Whittam, Alex Wilson, Ailsa Greenwood, John E. Eplasty Journal Article Objectives: To reduce the annual incidence of hot water bottle burns by reviewing cases, classifying injury, invoking a multimedia campaign to increase public awareness. To stimulate state, federal, and international government review of manufacturing standards with a view to reinforcing legislation. Methods: A multimedia warning was launched following the scalding death of an elderly lady. Our database allowed identification of all patients injured by hot water bottles; their medical notes were thoroughly reviewed. Results: The review divided cases into bottle failure and/or patient misuse. Early legislation in New Zealand resulted in bottle withdrawal from sale, mirrored by recent legislation in Australia. Legislation and the multimedia campaign have seen admissions from hot water bottle burns markedly decreased. Conclusions: Thorough audit of specific burn etiologies, with effective broadcasting of hazard, can result in reduction or abolition of future injury from that source and may prompt appropriate legislation to further protect the general public. Open Science Company, LLC 2010-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC2808054/ /pubmed/20090860 Text en Copyright © 2010 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article whereby the authors retain copyright of the work. The article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Journal Article
Whittam, Alex
Wilson, Ailsa
Greenwood, John E.
Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure
title Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure
title_full Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure
title_fullStr Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure
title_full_unstemmed Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure
title_short Burn Injuries Caused by Hot Water Bottles: Audit and Loop Closure
title_sort burn injuries caused by hot water bottles: audit and loop closure
topic Journal Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808054/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20090860
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