The risk of getting burned with boiling water or steam catches us every minute. Most often, the result of contact with a hot liquid is 1-2 degree lesions, which can be treated at home. But in order for the wound to heal without leaving a scar and without festering, it is important to know what is the first medical aid for burns.
Impact assessment
Providing the first pre-hospital care for burns, it is important to have information about:
- the origin of the burn (thermal, chemical);
- degree of skin damage (1-4);
- of the area of the affected surface.
With a thermal burn of grade 1-2 (redness, swelling, blisters), a doctor is not necessary if:
- 1 degree burn was obtained (redness, swelling, small blisters);
- a second degree burn was obtained, but the lesion site is small (up to 1% of the body - the area is equivalent to the surface of one palm);
- the wound is closed and does not have foreign bodies (pebbles, soil, chips).
In other cases, especially when the lesion covers the muscle and bone (grade 3-4), after the first first aid for burns is provided, it is necessary to hospitalize the victim.
How to help with burning with boiling water?
- It is necessary to cool the wound. It is advisable to hold the affected area of the body under a weak pressure of cool water (10 - 20 min) or lower it into a container. You can apply clean napkins moistened in cold water to the burn site. Apply ice to the wound, as the temperature below zero will further aggravate the process of destruction of the affected tissue.
- Chilled wound must be treated with a product from burns. Irreplaceable in the case of pre-hospital care for burns, such drugs as Solcoseryl (gel) and Panthenol (spray).
- In the place of a burn covered with a medicine, you must put a bandage out of a sterile bandage or gauze. Do not use cotton wool to treat cotton wool, as its villi will stick to the skin, and this threatens suppuration.
- The sufferer must be given an anesthetic of the ibuprofen group.
- Call an ambulance.
If even a small patch of skin in an infant is affected, it is necessary to consult a doctor, since weak children's immunity can not cope with the conditionally pathogenic environment surrounding the wound.
Prohibited techniques
When treating burns, you can not use folk remedies - such first aid will only harm the victim. Of course, butter and kefir, calanchoe and aloe juice, honey and soda have medicinal properties, but they are not sterile, which means they threaten to infect the body through an open wound with staphylococcus, E. coli and other insidious pathogens.
Also it is impossible:
- self-tapping of blisters - this requires sterile hospital conditions and the help of a qualified surgeon;
- grease the wound with iodine, zelenka - these solutions should only treat undamaged areas around the burn site;
- apply to the damaged skin of starch, soap, beaten eggs, home-made ointments and any other means, except for the scientifically proven medicines for burns.
Treatment of a burn from boiling water
If the resulting skin damage on contact with boiling water is negligible, then home treatment involves a daily change of the dressing with the application of the same Pantenol and Solcoseryl. You can also use Olazole, furatsilinovuyu ointment, 1% cream dermazin. A prolonged wound can be lubricated with vitamin E or sea buckthorn oil. If the burn has started to catch up or does not heal for more than 1 week, you should go to the hospital.