Biomaterial Database

Grass-skirt burns in Papua New Guinea. 1983

P Barss, and K Wallace

A retrospective survey of burn cases admitted to Alotau Hospital, Papua New Guinea, over a four-year period showed that 48% were due to grass-skirt burns. Most of these occurred in young girls and usually caused full-thickness burns of the buttocks and thigh. The commonest long-term complications were contractures of the hips and knees. The next most common cause of burns was a fall into a fire during an epileptic fit (24%). None of the patients were on anticonvulsants. The population needs to be informed of the dangers of leaving children near open fires, of the value of bundling up children whose grass-skirts catch fire to smother the flames, of the importance of anticonvulsants to chronic epileptics, and of the advantages of seeking medical treatment when burns occur.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D008297	Male		Males
D010219	Papua New Guinea	A country consisting of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and adjacent islands, including New Britain, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, and New Hanover in the Bismarck Archipelago; Bougainville and Buka in the northern Solomon Islands; the D'Entrecasteaux and Trobriand Islands; Woodlark (Murua) Island; and the Louisiade Archipelago. It became independent on September 16, 1975. Formerly, the southern part was the Australian Territory of Papua, and the northern part was the UN Trust Territory of New Guinea, administered by Australia. They were administratively merged in 1949 and named Papua and New Guinea, and renamed Papua New Guinea in 1971.	New Guinea, East,New Guinea, Papua
D002056	Burns	Injuries to tissues caused by contact with heat, steam, chemicals (BURNS, CHEMICAL), electricity (BURNS, ELECTRIC), or the like.	Burn
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D003020	Clothing	Fabric or other material used to cover the body.	Clothes,Garments,Military Uniforms,Nurse Uniforms,School Uniforms,Uniforms,Garment,Military Uniform,Nurse Uniform,School Uniform,Uniform,Uniform, Military,Uniform, Nurse,Uniform, School,Uniforms, Military,Uniforms, Nurse,Uniforms, School
D003296	Cooking	The art or practice of preparing food. It includes the preparation of special foods for diets in various diseases.	Cookery
D004827	Epilepsy	A disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of paroxysmal brain dysfunction due to a sudden, disorderly, and excessive neuronal discharge. Epilepsy classification systems are generally based upon: (1) clinical features of the seizure episodes (e.g., motor seizure), (2) etiology (e.g., post-traumatic), (3) anatomic site of seizure origin (e.g., frontal lobe seizure), (4) tendency to spread to other structures in the brain, and (5) temporal patterns (e.g., nocturnal epilepsy). (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, p313)	Aura,Awakening Epilepsy,Seizure Disorder,Epilepsy, Cryptogenic,Auras,Cryptogenic Epilepsies,Cryptogenic Epilepsy,Epilepsies,Epilepsies, Cryptogenic,Epilepsy, Awakening,Seizure Disorders
D005260	Female		Females
D005390	Fires	Combustion or burning in which substances combine chemically with oxygen typically giving out bright light, heat, and smoke.	Fire