Personal Injury Law

Burn Injury Treatment

By Flaxman & Lopez

Severe burn injuries cause by car accidents, workplace accidents, truck accidents, and fires often require hospitalization. In the hospital, burn injury victims often receive several types of treatment to deal with the several ways that burn injuries affect the body:

1) Topical treatments with antibiotics. Skin is the first line of defense the skin has in protecting the body against viruses and bacteria. Burned skin, however, does not offer this protection and in fact becomes vulnerable to infection, especially when it is bandaged and kept wrapped up during the healing process. For this reason, topical antibiotic creams are often applied to the skin to help with rapid healing and to help prevent infection and scarring.

2) Barriers and bandages. Most serious burns need to be wrapped in order to protect the skin from infection and in order to allow wounds to remain clear of fluids and pus. Bandages are minimize pain for the patient and help keep the skin and limbs in place during the healing process.

3) Pressure garments. As the burned area begins to form scar ttisue, pressure garments are often worn on the affected area. These special garments put pressure on the wound and ensure that the scarring does not grow above or beyond the wounded area.

4) Elevating burned areas. Severe burn injuries cause swelling because the body goes into shock and accumulates fluid. Unfortunately, burned skin has a difficult time swelling because the skin is often stiff. This can cause limbs to experience high levels of pressure and floor flow problems. Elevating affected areas allows the fluid to drain away, reducing the pressure in the burned areas and allowing the blood to circulate well.

5) Surgical cuts. Also known as escharectomies, surgical cuts are sometimes required when simply elevating a burned area of skin does not reduce the pressure under the skin.

6) Exercise therapy. During the healing process, the skin shrinks with the formation of scar tissue. To ensure that normal movement is still possible when the skin heals, patients need to engage in rehabilitation and exercise to ensure that they regain all their mobility. In severe burn injury cases, where underlying tissue and muscle have been injured, rehabilitation is often needed to help the patient regain the mobility they have lost through their accident.

Full post as published by Florida Injury Lawyer Blog on March 11, 2010 (boomark / email).