Thermal burn: first aid and treatment at home

Thermal burn treatment Thermal burns are characterized by redness, swelling, skin flushing, the appearance of blisters, in more complex stages affects tissue, muscles, sometimes internal organs.The reason for such defeats is often human inattention or accident.

In spite of the stage of thermal burn, the patient needs first aid. At stages 1 and 2, the victim can treat at home, the 3rd and 4th stages are the heaviest - the person needs hospitalization and hospital treatment.

Thermal burns of 1, 2 and 3 degrees

Thermal burns occur when the skin is exposed to high temperatures, the sources of which can be:

solid, incandescent objects, including, kitchen utensils;
open flame from any source, from a gas burner to an ordinary match;
Hot water from any source, including natural streams;
steam from a pipe or a hose on manufacture, heating devices, house utensils.

Approximately all burns are conventionally divided into non-broad - up to 10% of the body, and extensive - over 10%. The initial value in this case is usually considered to be the area of the victim's palm, which equals 1% of the total area of the body. So with the help of the palm you can determine how many percent of the body is affected by the burn.

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Extensive burnscause a general pain reaction, sometimes with fever and headache, a feeling of discomfort and soreness in the area of injury;
With extensive lesionsthere are more serious complications and violations in the work of the whole organism - a burn disease.

Depending on the degree of penetration of the burn to a certain depth and area of skin damage, four main degrees of damage are identified. The degree of burn is expressed as a percentage, which indicates the area of the skin lesion.

4 degree. Burns cover the entire area, and the necrosis of most of the tissues occurs. There is a risk of fatalities.
3 degreeis characterized by tissue damage to the muscles, and sometimes to the bones, with the bubbles, most often bursting, formed a scab. The affected area can be surrounded by a second degree burn zone with small bubbles filled with clear liquid, and reddened skin (first degree).
2 degreeis expressed in redness and swelling of the skin, dressed or bursting of blisters, as well as with the formation of a thin scrounge with time.
1 degree.The affected area gradually swells and turns red. At this time, a person experiences pain and burning sensation in the area of the affected tissue. The symptomatology manifests itself within 2-3 days, and then disappears. After about a week, the skin looks completely healthy.

Of course, the degree of burn will depend on many factors, for example, on the duration of exposure to high temperatures. A wrongly rendered help with thermal burns can cause additional injuries when removing clothing or an object that caused a burn. Therefore, it is very important to know the rules of first aid for thermal burns.

First aid for thermal burns

In order to provide first aid at home, it is necessary to conduct a number of procedures aimed at on the elimination of pain in a person and prevention of infection of the damaged skin area:

Immediately extinguish the flames on the clothing and skin of the victim, for which cover it with a cloth (this will lead to the termination of air intake), or to throw off burning clothing. You can extinguish a flaming piece of clothing, pelting it with earth, sand or snow, pouring water or putting it in water.
Soothe the victim and others, thus preventing panic attacks on both sides.
Carefully remove the smoldering clothes from the victim, which did not fixate in the wound. It is forbidden to tear off the remains of clothes from the wound. You can not touch the burnt surface with your hands.
The victim is best placed in a cool room or in the shade if the burn occurred in the summer on the street. As much as possible, it is necessary to find out the circumstances under which a person was injured.
Keep for 15-20 minutes a damaged surface under running cold water - this will help improve blood circulation and not will give the affected area an increase in size due to the heating of the remaining skin areas (only for burns of 1-2 degrees).
Do not use ice to cool the burn zone, because, in addition to the existing burn, the victim will have an additional trauma - frostbite.
Use an anti-burn agent (eg "Rescuer" or "Panthenol") to apply to the affected area of skin and apply a dry sterile bandage. With extensive burns of the limbs, you can accurately fix them by applying a tire.
With extensive burns and when there are signs of burn shock (pallor, weakness, anxiety, cold sweat, tachycardia, falling arterial pressure, disturbance of cardiac activity and respiration) to give to the victim to drink a lot of a liquid - pure water, tea, compote.
If the victim complains of pain, then in order to avoid painful shock, you should give him any available pain medication (spasmalgone, analgin, etc.).
If a person does not have breathing, first of all, it is necessary to carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation, for example artificial respiration or indirect heart massage.
When indications for hospitalization, call an ambulance or deliver the victim to a medical institution.

When all these conditions are met, the chances of a favorable outcome for the victim are quite high. However, it must be remembered that even the smallest and minor thermal trauma can provoke severe consequences, including a fatal outcome in the victim.

Treatment of thermal burn at home

There are some restrictions on the treatment of thermal burns in the home. So, you can not go to the hospital if:

the degree of thermal burn is light (1st or 2nd), without damage to the deep layers of the skin;
The burn is about 1% of the body size - the area is approximately equal to the size of the palm;
the localization of a burn as large as a palm - not a person, not a foot or hand;
The burn wound is not inflamed, there are no suppuration and redness of the edges of the wound.

Anti-shock therapy should be adequate to the stage of providing medical care, the severity of the burn shock and the age of the victim. It should include the following activities:

pain relief;
replenishment of deficiency of blood (its components);
prevention, treatment of hypoxia;
correction of water-electrolyte, protein metabolism and acid-base balance of blood;
fighting with intoxication;
compensation of energy costs of the organism;
prevention, treatment of heart disorders;
prevention, treatment of acute hepatic-renal failure.

Much attention should be paid to the treatment of burns in children, because you need to act not only quickly, but also as safely as possible, accidentally not harming the child. Effective treatment of burns of 3rd and 4th degree in many respects depends on how quickly it is possible to get qualified medical care.

What not to do

to open blisters;
seal the wound with plaster;
To treat a wound with cotton wool - only a sterile bandage or gauze tampons;
touch the wound with hands without sterile gloves;
impose on the wound any traditional medicine (oil, sour cream, kefir, beaten eggs, alcohol solutions of any healing herbs, etc.).

Burn shock

This is the response of the body to an extremely strong pain stimulus. It is based on a thermal trauma, leading to severe disorders of central, regional and peripheral hemodynamics with a predominant violation of microcirculation and metabolic processes in the body of the burned; centralization of blood circulation takes place. Long-term painful irritation leads to disruption of the central nervous system, endocrine glands and the activity of all body systems.

Forecast

All burns have a negative impact on the systemic organs of man. How quickly a person will recover after a burn depends on his vastness, degree and age of the patient. Dangerous burns for the elderly after 60 years and small children.

A critical condition if the burn affects all skin, face, genitals, perineum, internal organs. In this situation, people are rarely saved. So, the effect of heat on the skin temperature above 50 degrees leads to the fact that the cells overheat, die, there is protein denaturation, paralysis in the tissue respiration, metabolism is disrupted. Thermal burn - it's dangerous, so you need to take action as soon as possible.