a survey of characteristics of self-immolation in the east of iran

the aim of this study was investigating the characteristic and outcome of self-immolation cases admitted to the burn centre of birjand, iran over an eight year period. this study is a retrospective review of case notes for patients with self-immolation and admitted to our referral burn centre in the last 8 years (january 2003-january 2011). a performa was designed to collect the data such as: demographic information, length of hospital stay, extent of the burn injuries as %tbsa (total body surface area) and final outcome. data was analyzed by spss software. between 2003 and 2011, 188 self-immolation cases admitted. the mean age was 26.97 ±12.6 years. female to male ratio was 1.7:1. housewives represented the largest group (43.1%) and kerosene was the most frequent agent used (74.6%). there was significant different between mortality and tbsa and low educational level (p=0.0001). there was a significant fluctuation time trend in the incidence (per 100,000 population) of self-immolation from 2003 (4.64, ci 95%: 4.62-4.65) to 2008 (5.2, ci 95%: 5.19-5.21). mortality rate was 64%. the survival rates at three weeks survival for patients who self-immolated was 24 percent (ci 95%: 17-31). the mean and median survival times were 6 days (ci 95%: 4.8-7.2) and 17.5 days (ci 95%: 13.3-21.6), respectively. our study has shown a lower incidence of self-immolation (5.3%) in the south khorasan region, when compared with other parts of iran, as well as a relatively low mortality rate. we have also reported self-immolation in pregnant women which has rarely been reported in medical literature.