Patients with small partial thickness burns can be treated as outpatients. Adults with less than 15% body surface area (BSA) partial thickness burns and children with less then 10% body surface area partial thickness burns can be candidates for outpatient treatment.
Treatment:
A- Emergency treatment:
Not all burn patients need to be admitted to the hospital for treatment as some of these burn patients can be treated as outpatients including first degree burns and some second degree burns. Small partial thickness burns can be treated in an outpatient setting. Adults with les than 15% body surface area partial thickness burns and children with less than 10% body surface area partial thickness burns can usually be treated safely as outpatients. These patinets after being treated they should have a supportive home enviroment. Abuse or neglect has to be excluded specially with children, smoke inhalation should also be excluded as it is one of the major causes of dealth in burned patients.
What type of burns are eligible to be treated in an outpatient setting:
Cyanide is a toxic chemical substance that is found in a gas or a salt form. The gaseous form is colorless with a bitter almonds odor. Cyanide can be ingested by mouth, inhaled or absorbed by the skin.
Cyanide is used in the synthesis of some plastic items; it can be used in cleaning metal as well as in other industrial or laboratory settings. Cyanide is also naturally present in some pits and seeds of fruits such as apricots and almonds but it’s in a small amount. Nitroprusside is a drug that may lead to cyanide toxicity if it’s given in an improper dose. During a house fire, cyanide gas is produced due to the combustion of common household materials. Inhalation of cyanide leads to cyanide poisoning. Cyanide can be used in chemical warfare and poisoning.
Cyanide simply works by decreasing the oxygen content of the blood by causing a chemical change that prevent oxygen from getting into the hemoglobin of the red blood cell and this will lead to tissue hypoxia.
Debridement is defined as the process of removing dead tissue and contaminated material from and around a wound to expose healthy tissue.
When the skin gets burned and tissue dies, the dead tissue will naturally fall of as part of the healing process of the skin. In other cases where the burns are more severe, wound debridement will be needed. Dead tissue is a good medium for bacteria to grow and that is why it is important to remove it (bacteria can lead to infection).
Debridement methods are:
The incidance of burns during pregnancy are more common in developing countries then developed countries. Treatment of burns during pregnency may not be easy as during treatment both the wellbeing of the mother and the baby has to be taken into consideration. Topical and systemic treatment of burns in pregnant women may cause serious effects on the health of the fetus including fetal malformations.
Treatment of burns in pregnant women may include:
Anyone is susceptable for burn injuries including pregnant women. The incidence of burns during pregnancy is higher in developing countries compared to developed countries. Most of the burns happening in pregnant women are accidental and are caused by different causes. The most common causes are scalding followed by flame injury. Other causes my include chemical, flash, electrical and friction burns.
The management of burns in pregnant women is not easy, it requires a multidisciplinary approch with close monitoring of fetal and maternal well being. For the mother the aim of the treatment is to restore full range of function and to minimize damages as much as possible. For the fetus the aim of treatment is reach full term being healthy without any congenital abnormalities. Treatment is more difficult in the first trimester of pregnancy because of thr risk of abortion. When the mother is at or near term, delivery should be done as soon as possible.
Minor burns may have no effect on the course of pregnancy but burns of at least 35% of total body surface area can induce early delivery and/or fetal loss. When a burn injury happen in a pregnant lady and depending on the severity of the burn there will be multiple body reactions among which are the following:
Tissue expansion is a procedure that allows the body to grow extra skin. It is done by inserting a silicone balloon expander under the skin near the area to be repaired (such as scars happening after burns) and then gradually filling the balloon with salt water over time causing the skin to stretch and grow (keeping the skin under tension causes new cells to form).
Tissue expansion is used in conditions such as breast reconstruction surgery, repairing burns, scars, large birth marks, hairy areas such as the scalp (the extra skin is still able to grow hair).
After the skin stretches the scaring is surgically removed and the expanded skin is extended to meet healthy un-scarred skin.
Fires and burns are one of leading causes of household injuries. Simple things can be done to prevent or decrease these risks of fires and the resulting burns which include:
Laughter is free, it has many positive effects on the physical and mental health and no known negative side effects. Laughter binds people together, infact it’s the shortest distance between two people.
A team of researches from the University of Leeds, UK, found laughing habits in people suffering from wounds can accelerate healing compared to using advanced technology.
The effect of laughter may include:
There is no treatment that can cure and remove keloid scars 100 percent. Patients who have family history of keloid scar or previous history of keloid scar have high possibility of keloid recurrence more then others. Keloid scar may be treated by one or more of the following methods:
Surgery:
It may be the most effective way to remove large keloids. Surgery can be used by itself or with other treatment methods to decrease the possibility of recurrence as there is a possibility of keloid recurrerence an example is using surgery and steriod injection into the keloid scar or using surgery and other treatment methods to decrease recurrence rate.
