Burn Wound Treatment & Dressing

What are burn wounds?

Burn wounds occur when something hot damages your skin. Fire is an obvious cause of burn wounds, but contact with hot ovens and burners are some of the most common ways to get burn wounds.

You can also suffer burns from faulty electrical items, chemical burns from cleaning products and batteries, and scalds from hot liquids. Sunburns can be severe too, cracking and blistering the skin just like fire.

Burns fit into one of three classifications depending on how much damage they cause:

First-degree burns

First-degree burns make your skin red, painful, and swollen, but only affect the surface layer.

Second-degree burns

Second-degree burns penetrate deeper into the skin. They cause blistering and more severe pain than first-degree burns.

Third-degree burns

Third-degree burns cause the worst damage, affecting all skin layers and the underlying tissues. Extensive third-degree burns might require specialized treatment at a burns center.

What burn wound treatment might I need?

Depending on the severity of your burns, Dr. Rash might recommend burn wound care, such as:

Water-based treatments

Ultrasound mist therapy and other water-based treatments help to clean the wound tissue thoroughly.

Fluids

You might require extra fluids to prevent dehydration.

Medications

Healing burns are often excruciatingly painful. You might need strong pain medication and, in some cases, anti-anxiety drugs to keep you calm. If an infection sets in, you might need antibiotics, and if you’re not up to date with your tetanus vaccinations, a booster might be advisable.

Topical treatments

Topical burn care products like silver sulfadiazine and bacitracin help prepare your burn wound to close and prevent infection.

What burn wound dressings might I need?

Anaheim Wound Care uses a variety of special wound dressings, including products like:

• Hydrogel dressings
• Hydrocolloid dressings
• Polyurethane film dressings
• Silicon-coated nylon dressings 
• Biosynthetic skin substitute dressings 
• Antimicrobial (silver- and iodine-containing) dressings
• Calcium alginate dressings
• Medicated wound dressing pads containing povidone-iodine or chlorhexidine

Burn wound dressings need to be able to absorb fluid coming from the damaged tissue. However, they must also keep the atmosphere around the burn site humid — just moist enough to encourage healing and stop the tissues from drying out.

Burn dressings also need to provide a barrier against bacteria to prevent the wound from getting an infection. Your burn dressings should also be flexible enough to accommodate the change in position when you move. 

For more information about expert burn wound treatment and dressing, call Anaheim Wound Care today or book an appointment online.