Thermal burn: first aid and treatment

Violation of the integrity of the tissues of the human body in a certain place due to exposure to high temperatures is called a thermal burn. Contact occurs with heated substances that may be in a solid, liquid or gaseous state. When receiving injuries of a high degree of severity, the provision of timely assistance plays an important role.

Features and classification

Get a thermal burn can not only children but also adults. Much depends on compliance with safety rules when working with heated surfaces and substances in the workplace and at home. Most often, it is women who receive such injuries, since in most cases they are involved in cooking.

Damage can have varying degrees of severity. The duration of treatment and the possibility of developing any complications will depend on this.

• Thermal burn 1 degree does not pose a particular danger to the body. Approximately on the third day, the affected epidermis dies, and in this place a healthy layer of skin appears.
• Thermal burn of the 2nd degree to some extent affects the dermis. In this regard, the recovery process can take about two weeks. The blood flow in this case is not disturbed. After healing, sensitivity usually returns completely. As for pustular wounds, they are formed quite rarely.
• Thermal burn of 3 degrees extends to large areas. With such injuries, tissue necrosis occurs, many bubbles appear. In some cases, a scab appears, after which suppuration is observed. Damage caused by proper therapy is granulated and scarred. Healthy tissue grows along the edges of the wound.
• Thermal burn of 4 degrees is dangerous to human life. A black scab appears, accompanied by carbonization of the damaged areas. Necrosis may develop.

Main reasons

Such injuries occur most often as a result of accidents or careless handling of aggressive or heated substances, objects or mechanisms.

• In approximately 85 percent of cases, open flame causes thermal damage.
• About 7 percent of such injuries occur to patients as a result of exposure to liquid or gaseous substances.
• About 6 percent of burns were caused by electric current.

Determining the severity of symptoms

If slight damage is received, then redness appears on the surface of the skin. Be sure to accompany moderate pain. A slight swelling may occur. In the final stages of healing, enhanced peeling of the skin is noted.

If you receive a second-degree injury, you may notice small blisters on the skin that have a yellowish liquid inside. Other visible changes usually do not occur. Scars may remain after healing. Pain in the initial stages is pronounced.

For the third degree of thermal burns, the spread of necrosis is characteristic. It can be dry or wet. The affected tissue takes on a yellowish tint, and many blisters appear. After healing, quite extensive scars form. If the lesion is small, then complete epithelial fouling often occurs.

With the last degree of thermal burns, necrosis is more pronounced. It penetrates directly into the depths of tissue. Bones, muscle structures and tendons are damaged. The injury site may be brown or black.

Diagnosis to determine the degree of damage

The burn itself has vivid manifestations, so it is not difficult to diagnose it. However, it is necessary to understand what degree of severity is characteristic of it. This allows you to prescribe a competent treatment.

The depth of the lesion is determined by the scab in which the thrombosed vessels are visible. In diagnosing, infrared thermography is of particular benefit. When conducting research, the deepest places have a specific color. Accurately know the depth of thermal injury is possible only 7 days after receipt.

Be sure to measure the area of ​​the damaged area, since this is important for subsequent therapy.

First aid for thermal burn

First, the effect of the irritating factor should be eliminated. In case of slight injury, which is accompanied by slight redness, it is enough to cool the damaged area under cold water. After that, you can apply the special drug "Olazol". It helps with burns. In the presence of bubbles, erosion and other damage, you should immediately contact a specialist.

If the damage was caused by prolonged exposure to sunlight, then in most cases you can do without doctors. First aid for thermal burns of this type is to regularly wash the problem area with cold water and use specialized ointments.

Upon receipt of a serious thermal injury, the main thing is not to harm the ambulance before arrival.

• It is forbidden to introduce any means, lubricate the damaged areas with ointments and aerosols.
• Do not treat the site of injury with colognes and other solutions containing alcohol.
• Ice on wounds is also not allowed to be applied in order to avoid necrosis of the skin.
• Do not touch the affected areas with your hands or puncture blisters that appear on your own.
• When assisting with a thermal burn, you do not need to apply any bandages. They impair blood circulation.

Features of traditional treatment

At the initial stage, in the presence of serious damage, certain drugs are always used. With primary care, they try to prevent the development of shock. For this, the patient is given an anesthetic, after which a sterile dressing is applied.

Typically, a tetanus injection is given when a thermal injury occurs. Subsequent treatment depends on the nature and extent of the damage. With small burns, they are dispensed with regular disinfection. At the very beginning, drugs can be prescribed to improve healing.

With a thermal burn of the skin of the third degree, tissue necrosis often occurs. In many cases, suppuration appears, so the main task is to eliminate the infection. Dressings should change as often as possible. Antiseptic compounds are applied to them.

During treatment, ointments are indicated in the table.

Together with ointments, antihistamines and other drugs can be prescribed that can improve blood circulation, normalize the work of the heart and other organs. It all depends on the severity of the injury.

Surgical intervention

With a thermal burn of the first or second degree, medication is carried out. However, in other cases, surgical intervention may be required. They resort to it in extreme situations when there are extensive injuries with deep wounds.

If the lesion is penetrating, then excision of parts with necrotic tissue may be a rational solution. After removal of sites, stitches are usually applied. Alternatively, combination plastic may be used. It is done if it is impossible to connect the edges of an existing wound.

Excision is not performed immediately. Early surgery may be necessary for osteonecrosis, when there is a risk of impaired blood flow directly into the deep tissues. The optimal period is 4-10 days after receiving the damage. It is during this time that the patient's condition improves, and the injury acquires distinct boundaries.

Plastic surgery prevents further infection of tissues and improves the healing process. Usually it is carried out once. However, a multi-step intervention may be required if the patient is very weak or if his injuries occupy too large an area.

The use of physiotherapy

With thermal and chemical burns, special procedures are prescribed that allow you to speed up the recovery processes, prevent the possible appearance of purulent wounds, and improve blood circulation.

• Irradiation with ultraviolet light promotes tissue regeneration, relieves inflammation and has a stimulating effect on local immunity.
• Ultrasound therapy leads to resorption of scars and normalization of blood flow. It also has an analgesic effect.
• UHF is done to relieve inflammatory processes. Another procedure improves blood circulation.
• Magnetotherapy is a biostimulating event that allows you to increase the rate of metabolic processes.
• Cryotherapy is carried out at the first stage. Timely cooling of the damaged area avoids numerous complications.

Conducting infusion-transfusion therapy

The technique is intended to replenish the fluid lost as a result of damage. Special solutions are introduced into the body. With timely use, the effectiveness of surgical intervention increases to a large extent.

Intensive care is prescribed if 10 percent of the dermis is affected by trauma. The program of future infusions is determined by the attending physician. Most often, it is necessary to restore the volume of red blood cells and electrolytes. Together with glucose, vitamins C and B are introduced into the body to replenish the water balance. The selection of solutions largely depends on the nature of the damage.

Folk recipes for the treatment of lung injuries

The simplest help with a thermal burn of the first degree involves the use of toothpaste, which has menthol in it. It allows you to reduce pain, protect against bacteria and relieve swelling. A thin layer of paste does not allow moisture to evaporate from the fiber, so the skin will not dry out much.

Helps in the treatment of thermal damage to aloe. It is necessary to cut off the leaf of the flower, and then rinse it under the tap. The slightly dried billet is cut lengthwise into two halves and applied to the burnt area. A bandage is used for fixation. If necessary, the sheet can be crushed until a uniform mass is obtained.

For minor burns, black or green tea is used in liquid form. With this simple tool, it is necessary to soak the bandage and wrap the damaged area. The tannins present in the drink can normalize blood circulation and improve healing abilities.

You can soothe pain and relieve swelling with the help of potatoes. It should be cut and attached to the site of injury. For the same purpose, a cabbage leaf is often used instead.

Possible complications after an injury

Immediately after receiving thermal damage, certain problems may occur associated with the deterioration of the condition:

• Sepsis, which is an infection of the body with pathogenic microbes, is possible in the presence of deep burns, covering the human body by about 20 percent. Destructive processes occurring in tissues lead to it. The immune system weakens under the influence of numerous necrosis.
• Pneumonia occurs with numerous and deep tissue lesions. It is often bilateral. It occurs in many patients after receiving deep and extensive wounds.
• Burn exhaustion suggests the absence of the effect of ongoing therapeutic measures for two months. If the degree of healing during this period is negligible, then we can talk about this complication. Dystrophic changes usually occur in many systems of the human body. Immunity is greatly weakened, metabolic processes are disturbed.
• Toxic hepatitis adversely affects the patient. It poses a serious danger to the patient's further life. The disease develops due to the ingestion of a large number of chemicals in the form of drugs.
• Vascular thrombosis is another unpleasant complication. It manifests itself in pain in the affected limb. Blood outflow worsens significantly, metabolic processes are disturbed.

After a severe burn for a long time, disturbances in the activity of the main organs can be observed. Some processes become chronic. The more damage was caused during an injury, the higher the likelihood of complications arising. However, with proper treatment, they can be avoided.

ICD code: thermal burn

As a statistical basis, a special document was created - the International Classification of Diseases. It is periodically reviewed by WHO management. A thermal burn is introduced into it. In the ICD-10 it is represented by classes T20-T32. This includes damage caused by electric heaters, friction, flames, lightning, radiation, incandescent objects, hot air and other means. Sunburns were excluded from the classification.

The international classification of diseases consists of three volumes. The first of them includes the basic structure, the second - instructions for use, the third - an alphabetical index. The documentation is divided into 22 classes. They are indicated by letters, each of which corresponds to a certain category, and numbers.

Medical prognosis

Timely assistance with thermal burns makes it possible to avoid all kinds of complications. However, in some cases, the consequences of damage are very serious. Malfunctions in the functioning of important organs. Light burns heal quickly enough. The further prognosis is influenced not only by the degree of injury, but also by the quality of the treatment.

Equally important is the age of the victim. The prognosis for the elderly will be less pleasant, since the healing processes in the body are already functioning not so effectively. Burns of 2 and 3 severity pose a threat to life if two-thirds of the surface of the body has undergone thermal exposure. Critical situations are those in which the perineum, facial part and body suffer.

It should be clearly understood that with prolonged thermal exposure to the skin, overheating of the cells occurs, as a result of which they die. Protein denaturation occurs, metabolism is disturbed. After eliminating the source of thermal effects, hyperthermia inside the tissues does not stop, but continues.

In conclusion

In modern medical centers, a combustiologist is involved in thermal injuries. His competence usually includes deep and extensive burns. Superficial damage is successfully treated by other specialists.

It is necessary to turn to doctors for help in the following situations:

• damage was received by a child or a person suffering from various chronic diseases;
• the injury has a second severity with a lesion of a fairly wide area;
• pain does not disappear for a long time;
• additional symptoms are felt in the form of dizziness, nausea, weakness, and heart rhythm disturbance.

It is best to visit a doctor even with a slight burn, in order to use the most effective means. In this case, it will be possible to quickly get rid of pain and avoid skin defects.