Effective & Trusted Medications Guide » 2008 » August
Before burns are treated, the burning agent must be stopped from inflicting further damage. For example, fires are extinguished. Clothing—especially any that is smoldering (such as melted synthetic shirts), covered with hot tar, or soaked with chemicals—is immediately removed.
Hospitalization is sometimes necessary for optimal care of burn injuries. For example, elevating a severely burned arm or leg above the level of the heart to prevent swelling is more easily accommodated in a hospital. In addition, burns that prevent a person from performing essential daily functions, such as walking or eating, make hospitalization necessary. Severe burns, deep second- and third-degree burns, burns occurring in the very young or the very old, and burns involving the hands, feet, face, or genitals are usually best treated at burn centers. Burn centers are hospitals that are specially equipped and staffed to care for burn victims.
Burns are injuries to tissue that result from heat, electricity, radiation, or chemicals.
Burns are usually caused by heat (thermal burns), such as fire, steam, tar, or hot liquids. Burns caused by chemicals are similar to thermal burns, whereas burns caused by radiation (see Radiation Injury), sunlight (see Sunlight and Skin Damage: Introduction), and electricity (see Electrical and Lightning Injuries: Electrical Injuries) tend to differ significantly.
Stings by bees, wasps, and hornets are common throughout the United States. Some ants also sting. The average person can safely tolerate 10 stings for each pound of body weight. This means that the average adult could withstand more than 1,000 stings, whereas 500 stings could kill a child. However, one sting can cause death from an anaphylactic reaction (a life-threatening allergic reaction in which blood pressure falls and the airway closes in a person who is allergic to such stings. In the United States, 3 or 4 times more people die from bee stings than from snakebites. A more aggressive type of honeybee, called the Africanized killer bee, has reached some southern states as these bees travel north from South America. By attacking their victim in swarms, these bees cause a more severe reaction than do other bees.