A burn is an injury caused by external factors (heat, chemical substances, electrical discharges, radiation) on organic tissues, leading to their partial or total destruction. The severity of a burn will depend on its extension and depth. The classification of the burn depending on its depth is first, second and third degree. A first degree burn only affects the epidermis, it is the least serious because it is a very superficial lesion that only causes redness, pain and dryness of the skin, and it heals spontaneously; for example, mild sunburn A second degree burn partially affects the dermis, its depth is greater, it causes humidity, blisters and a lot of pain, sometimes it leaves scars; for example, burns from a boiling liquid or a caustic chemical.
The third degree burn affects the entire dermis, are so deep that can reach the muscles and other tissues. In it there is no possibility of skin regeneration, it always leaves a scar and may require skin grafts.
The extent of a burn is expressed as the percentage of the injured body surface. Thus, we have that a 2nd degree burn in 70% of the body is more serious than a 3rd degree burn that covers 20 or 25% of it, since there are more injured tissues and toxic substances and the loss of fluid is greater. To determine the severity of a person's burns, the so-called Rule of Nine has been established, modified for children, which distributes the body into areas in such a way as to calculate the percentage of the surface that has been burned.
The emergency treatment to apply to a person with a burn would be to wash the lesions well with water, use painkillers to calm the pain, give him to drink water with salt, to replace the fluids lost by the burn. Cover the lesions or affected areas, which reduces the loss of fluids and prevents the arrival of impurities, and transfer the injured to a hospital or outpatient to complete the definitive treatment.
On the other hand, it should be noted that current research approaches are aimed at improving the nutrition of people with burns, their immune response to infection and achieving skin growth in artificial culture media to cover large damaged areas from reduced donor sites (grafts).
