Understanding A Burn Injury
Classify the types of burns and describe the management of a case of 30% burns.
Answer.
Classification of Types of Burns
Depending on the Percentage of Burns
Types of Burns Mild
- Partial thickness burns < 15% in adults or < 10% in children
- Full-thickness burns less than 2%
- Can be treated on an outpatient basis.
Types of Burns Moderate
- The second degree of 15–25% burns
- Third degree between 2–10% burns
- Burns that do not involve eyes, ears, face, hand, or feet.
Types of Burns Major
- Second-degree burns are more than 25% in adults and more than 20% in children.
- All third-degree burns of 10% or more
- Burns involving eyes, ears, feet, hands, perineum
- All inhalation and electric burns
- Burns with fractures or major mechanical trauma.
Types of Burns Depending On Thickness Of Skin Involved
- First degree: Epidermis look red and painful, no blisters, heal rapidly in 5 to 7 days by epithelialization without
scaring. - Second degree: The affected area is mottled, red, and painful with blisters, and heals by epithelialization in 14 to 21 days.
- Superficial second-degree burn heals causing pigmentation
- Deep second-degree burn heals causing scarring and pigmentation.
- Third degree: The affected area is charred, parchment-like, painless, and insensitive with thrombosis of superficial vessels.
It needs grafting. Charred, denatured, insensitive, contracted full-thickness burn is known as eschar. - Fourth degree: It involves deeper structures, i.e. muscles and bones.
Types of Burns Depending On Thickness Of Skin Involved
- Partial thickness burns: It is a first or second-degree burn that is red and painful often with blisters.
- Full thickness burns: It is a third-degree burn that is charred, insensitive, and deep involving all layers of skin.
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