Acute Management of Major Thermal Burns in Adults: Presentation

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the acute management of thermal burns in adults. It begins with an introduction to thermal burns, defining them as injuries caused by heat sources like steam, hot liquids, and fire, and categorizes them into first, second, and third-degree burns. The presentation's aim is to provide insights into the background, causes, assessment, and acute management of thermal burns, focusing on nursing interventions and their rationales. It details the causes of thermal burns, including fire, hot liquids, and chemicals, and outlines assessment methods such as assessing burn severity, identifying the cause, and determining the body-surface area affected. The intervention section highlights priority actions like infection control, wound care, pain management, patient comfort, and stress management techniques. The rationale for these interventions is explained, emphasizing their role in preparing tissues for grafting, minimizing pain, and reducing emotional and physical distress. The presentation references several research papers to support the information provided.

ACUTE MANAGEMENT OF
THERMAL BURNS
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OVERVIEW
• Thermal burns is considered as a category of burn that result due to
close interaction with heated objects like steam, boiling water, hot
objects and cooking oil.
• Burns damages the tissue beneath the skin and can be classified under
life-threatening emergency or minor medical health concern (Porter et
al., 2015).
• Thermal burns are categorized under three broad headings namely first
degree burn, second degree burn and third degree burn.

AIM OF THE PRESENTATION
The primary aim of this presentation is provide an overview on thermal
burn in adults, highlighting the background and causes leading to
thermal burns. Different ways of assessment was explained with acute
management technique using high priority of nursing intervention that
will help the patient to recover efficiently with the rationale behind the
proposed intervention.

CAUSES OF THERMAL BURN
Burns employ a disastrous influence on the patient in relation to their suffering,
financial loss, disability and human life. World-wide more than 180,000 burns
are reported and the treatment depends on the severity and location of damage.
The causes of thermal burn are (Stanojcic et al., 2018):
• Fire
• Hot steam
• Hot liquid
• Hot metal or glass
• Chemicals
• Radiation and sunlight

ASSESSMENT OF THERMAL BURN
The assessment of thermal burn is carried in following ways (Rice et al.,
2017):
• Assess the severity of burn and the conscious level of the patient
• Identify the cause of burn
• Assess the presence of associated injuries
• Note the time of burn
• Body-surface area id assessed
• Assess the depth of burn and
• Baseline determination is conducted

INTERVENTION
The priority intervention and recommendation for thermal burn are as
follows (Douglas et al., 2017):
• Provide effective infection control and burn care measures.
• Cover the wound to prevent any infection unless air-exposure burn
care method is required.
• Assess the report on pain intensity
• Provide comfort measures to the patient
• Encourage the patient to use stress management technique
• Provide the patient with medication

RATIONALE
The rationale for the chosen intervention are as follows (Wiktor et al., 2017):
• Burn care measures prepares the tissue of the patient for grafting and also reduces
any risk of infection failure.
• Air movement and temperature changes can result in pain to the exposed region
of nerve endings.
• Repot of pain will provide the specialist to identify degree of pain and destruction
cause by burn.
• Comfort measure and stress management promotes relaxation in the patient and
reduces muscle tension.
• Medication therapy will reduce emotional and physical distress of the patient
related to debridement.

REFERENCES
• Douglas, H. E., Dunne, J. A., & Rawlins, J. M. (2017). Management of burns.
Surgery (Oxford), 35(9), 511-518.
• Porter, C., Hardee, J., Herndon, D. N., & Suman, O. E. (2015). The role of exercise in
the rehabilitation of patients with severe burns. Exercise and sport sciences reviews,
43(1), 34.
• Rice, P. L., Orgill, D. P., Jeschke, M. G., & Collins, K. A. (2017). Classification of
burn injury. UpToDate, Waltham, MA.(Accessed on September 9, 2017.).
• Stanojcic, M., Abdullahi, A., Rehou, S., Parousis, A., & Jeschke, M. G. (2018).
Pathophysiological response to burn injury in adults. Annals of surgery, 267(3), 576-
584.
• Wiktor, A., Richards, D., & Torrey, S. B. (2017). Treatment of minor thermal burns.
UpToDate. Waltham (MA): UpToDate.