Review articles about different components of research in wound dressing for burn patients. After reading the articles, what new techniques did you learn that you want to start to put into practice for burn patients. What new techniques might you want to add to any type of wound dressings? What further research needs to be done on burn dressings? Is there anything that you found particular interesting or what to research more on burn dressings or wound dressings in general?
The first thing to do if you burn or scald yourself is to stop the burning process as quickly as possible. This means putting out any flames, washing off hot liquid or moving from the area where you are exposed to heat.
Burn injuries are common and costly; each year, there are more than 200,000 cases, costing the Australian community $150 million. Management of smaller burn injuries in the community can be improved by appropriate first aid, good burn dressings and wound management. This can reduce the risk of the burn becoming deeper or infected, and can potentially reduce the requirement for specialist review or surgery. Objective: The objective of this article is to provide healthcare professionals with information about the pathophysiology of burn wound progression. This information includes the aims of burn wound dressings and indications for different types of dressings in different burn depths, advantages of blister debridement, and the reasoning behind advice given to patients after healing of the burn wound. Discussion: This article provides a framework used by the State Burn Service of Western Australia, by which clinicians can understand the needs of a specific burn wound and apply these principles when choosing an appropriate burn dressing for their patient. Every intervention in the journey of a patient with a burn injury affects their eventual outcome. By managing all burn injuries effectively at every single step, we can reduce burn injury morbidity as a community.
We favour covering the clean burn with a simple gauze dressing impregnated with paraffin (Jelonet). Avoid using topical creams as these will interfere with subsequent assessment of the burn. Apply a gauze pad over the dressing, followed by several layers of absorbent cotton wool.
The major characteristics of a dressing that determine its suitability for application to a particular type of wound include its conformability, fluid and odour absorbing characteristics, handling and adhesive properties and the presence of antibacterial and haemostatic activity where appropriate.
Wound dressings should provide the most optimum conditions for wound healing, while protecting the wound from infection with microorganisms and further trauma. It is important that the dressings be removed atraumatically, to avoid further damage to the wound surface during dressing changes.
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