Week 9- Burns Flashcards
What are the functions of the skin?
- Protection against microorganisms, dehydration, ultraviolet light, and mechanical damage
- Sensation of pain, temp, touch, and deep pressure starts with the skin
- Mobility allows smooth movement of the body
- Exocrine activity occurs by the release of water, urea, and ammonia
- Immunity development against pathogens
- Regulation of temp
What is epidermis?
- Outermost layer of skin, provides a waterproof barrier and contributes to skin tone
What is contained in the dermis?
- Nerve endings
- Cutaneous blood vessels
- Sweat glands
- Hair follicles
- Sebaceous glands
What is contained in the subcutaneous layer?
- Adipose tissue
What are burns created by?
- Burns are diffused soft-tissue injuries created by destructive energy transfer
- Transferred via radiation, thermal, or electrical energy
How high is a temp to cause burns?
- 44C cause burns
- Severity correlates directly with the amount of heart energy and duration of exposure
What can severe burns cause?
- Cause an increase in capillary permeability, causing intravascular proteins and fluid to move into interstitial space, which increases edema
- Due to loss of volume there is a decrease in cardiac output. This causes hypotension and end-organ failure
What is the goal of burn resuscitation?
- Is to restore or preserve tissue perfusion
What is the zone of coagulation?
- Source of most damage, little to no blood flow
What is the zone of stasis?
- decreased blood flow and inflammation, necrosis can develop up to 48hrs. later
What is the zone of hyperemia?
- Least affected area, cells typically recover in 7 to 10 days
What is a superficial burn?
- First degree
- Epidermis only
- Skin is red
- Painful
Ex. sunburn
What is a partial thickness burn?
- Epidermis & dermis
- Skin is red; usually involves blisters or moisture present; painful; will heal spontaneously but may scar
What is the deep partial-thickness?
- Extends into dermis; damages hair follicle and sweat and sebaceous glands
- Very painful
- Often caused by hot liquids
What are the full-thickness burns?
- 3rd Degree
- All layers of the skin destroyed
- Skin white and pale, brown and leathery, or charred
- No pain sensation
- Usually requires skin grafting
What is fourth degree burn?
- Some texts classify these burns destroying skin, plus bone tissue and tendons
What are thermal burns?
- Caused by fire or other causes of heat injury
What is a flame burn?
- Often partial or full-thickness burns; associated with trauma or inhalation injury
Ex. house fire
What is scald burn?
- Almost 2/3 of burns in children are from scalds from hot drinks/ bath water. Most tend to be superficial/ partial thickness
What are contact burns?
- Be from prolonged contact or extremely hot object. These are common in industrial accidents or where a LOC occured causing prolonged contact
What are the flash burns?
- Occur from explosions with no sustained fire, There is normally a single wave of heat, but in larger explosions blast injuries, fracture, and internal trauma can occur
What two types of shock occur with burns?
- Hypovolemic shock (bc of interstitial fluid)
- Distributed shock (inadequate tissue perfusion locally, inadequate blood flow)
What are the clinical features of burn shock?
- Hypovolemia
- Increased blood viscosity due to increased ratio of red blood cells to plasma
- Reduced cardiac output
- Increased HR
How long does onset take for burn shock?
- 6 to 8 hours
What is thermal inhalation burns?
- Heat burns the airway tissue
- Infraglottic and lower airway damage
- Supraglottic (upper airway) damage
What occurs during thermal inhalation burns?
- Swelling due to burns in the upper airway can be fatal
- Swelling of the vocal cords can obstruct the airway completely