Articles

Modern burn therapy started around the Second World War when penicillin, sulphanilamide and plasma became available for clinical use. They were effective remedies against the two most usual deadly complications of deep burns, infection and shock. Before 1940 in Europe, a patient with over 30 per cent of their skin was most like to die. Now such a patient can attain multi-disciplinary treatment in a well-equipped and highly specialized burn unit.

Immense enhancements have appeared since the 1940s, reflected by better healing time, lower mortality rates and restored function. This is due to the creation of burn research units, a better knowledge of the burn wound and new, enhanced treatments.

The clinical team's first concern is not the burn scar or burn wound itself, but the burn victim's life-support systems for respiration and blood circulation. The burn victim can die from breathing problems or from shock. Shock is characterized by a decreased rate of circulation to the essential organs. If there is not enough blood circulating to these organs, they are deprived of the oxygen they require to work. The shock's severity generally matches the amount of skin that has been burned, that is shown as a percentage of the entire body surface. There are respiratory issues if the lungs cannot provide enough oxygen to the organism. This is more frequent if the burn victim has also suffered from smoke inhalation.

Shock, smoke inhalation, the size of the burn and the extension of a possible third-degree lesion determines a patient's immediate chances for survival after a burn injury. The success rate of skin care interventions depends upon the age of the burn victim, the area of the burn, and the severity of smoke inhalation damage.

Burns are classified by the size of the burn in relation to the overall body size of the victim and to the depth of the burn. The burn wound is cleaned by hospital personnel one or two times a day and then dressed, commonly with treatment products designed to destroy microbes (a burn cream known as a topical antibiotic), bandages and gauze. Dressings means anything the nurses apply on or around the lesion. Paraffin-imbued gauze is adequate because it doesn't adhere to the lesion. Modern see-through dressings are best, as the lesion can heal beneath what seems like transparent plastic sheeting. The curing process can be monitored and the skin doesn't require to be disturbed so often and so heals more quickly. The see-through dressings are very costly, but not if measured in terms of less scarring, minimizing pain and quicker curing. Classical bandages can be reused after being washed, while plastic-like sheets are used once.