Treating Burn Injuries

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

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

The medical team’s main concern is not the burn scar or burn wound itself, but the burn victim’s life-support systems for blood circulation and respiration. The burn victim can die from shock or from breathing problems. Shock is characterized by a reduced rate of blood flow to the essential organs. If there is not enough blood circulating to these organs, they can’t receive the oxygen they require to function. The severity of shock generally matches the burn area, that is expressed as a percentage of the complete surface of the body. There are respiratory problems if the lungs cannot provide enough oxygen to the body. This is more frequent if the burn victim has also suffered from smoke inhalation.

Shock, smoke inhalation, the size of the burn and how much of the total burn is a third-degree burn determines a person’s immediate possibilities for survival when suffering a burn injury. The success rate of skin care interventions depends upon the age of the burn victim, the area of the lesion, and the extent 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 treated by hospital personnel one or two times a day and then dressed, usually with treatment products designed to destroy microbes (a burn product called a topical antibiotic), gauze and bandages. Dressings means anything the nurses put on or around the lesion. Paraffin-impregnated gauze is adequate because it won’t stick to the lesion. Modern transparent dressings are best, as the lesion can heal beneath what looks like clear plastic sheeting. The curing progress can be watched and the skin doesn’t require to be disturbed so often and so heals more quickly. The transparent dressings are very expensive, but not if we consider advantages like less scarring, minimizing pain and quicker curing. Conventional bandages can be washed and reused while plastic-like sheets are used once.

Avoid the complications of severe skin burns and solar damage using a new skin care product made only with biological ingredients.

- Kathleen LeRoi