Annual Pub 2022 - Flipbook - Page 8
Risk of Pavement Burns from High Summer Heat
by Paul Harasim
Backyard barbecues, time spent at
the pool or beach, camping trips to
cooler climes – summertime in Las
Vegas evokes so many pleasant
images.
But for Dr. Syed Saquib – he’s an assistant professor of acute care surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of
Medicine and medical director of the
UMC Lions Burn Care Center – one
of the images summer brings to
mind is far less pleasant: blistering
burns acquired when someone lands
on hot pavement.
In fact, summer is known to Dr.
Saquib as “pavement burn season.”
If you fall on sidewalks, roads, or
DR. SYED SAQUIB | PHOTO: JOSH HAWKINS
other surfaces that a scorching
summer sun heats to as much as 180 degrees, serious burns can result. Dr. Saquib said 13 percent of the center’s
serious burn injuries come from hot pavement.
In a year’s time, the burn clinic admits more than 300 patients and also handles thousands of visits.
Dr. Saquib has co-authored many peer-reviewed publications that have demonstrated that patients with pavement burns have an increased hospital length of stay compared to other burns of similar sizes. They also require
a substantial need for surgical procedures, and those who come in with signs of heatstroke have an increased
in-hospital mortality.
People who are hurt, particularly the elderly, often are unable to get off the sizzling pavement because they are
unconscious after collapsing from dehydration, heatstroke, or another medical condition. Pavement burns are
also caused by falls caused by intoxication, while other burns occur after vehicle crashes throw people onto the
pavement.
Dr. Saquib said serious pavement burn injuries are unique to the desert environment — something he had never
heard before moving to Las Vegas in 2016. His studies of the phenomenon now have national media outlets
stretching from CNN to the Associated Press calling him for comment.
A study he co-authored found that once temperatures hit 95 degrees, there is a rise in admissions at the UMC
Lions Burn Care Center, with the numbers surging as temperatures rise above 100. Temperatures are expected to
hit 116 degrees this year.
Pediatric cases at the burn center, Dr. Saquib said, are frequently the result of children running barefoot on hot surfaces before caregivers can pick them up. As part of the burn center’s outreach program, 昀氀ip-昀氀ops are given out at
public swimming pools to help protect youngsters’ feet and to other vulnerable populations such as the homeless.
“We also see cases where people with diabetes who have a loss of sensation in their feet don’t feel the burn
damage in their feet until it’s too late,” he said.
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KIRK KERKORIAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT UNLV
SUMMER 2022
