First aid for burns: thermal and chemical burn, basic rules of behavior

Burns are one of the most common types of injuries: in Russia, in only one year, about 600,000 burns are recorded. A special contribution to this statistics is made by summer bonfires and New Year fireworks, forgotten chemicals on the table and defective electrical appliances. In the burn departments lie patients, among whom there is always a drunk who fell asleep with a burning cigarette, and a small child, who pulled a pot of boiling water from the stove. In terms of the number of deaths, lesions with burns are second only to car injuries. Burns are especially dangerous for the elderly and young children.

Burns are radiation, electrical, chemical and thermal. The most common are thermal burns - steam, flame, hot liquid. Children of the age category up to 5 years are most likely to encounter thermal burns with boiling water, they account for 80% of all existing species.
It should be understood that first aid for steam burns (thermal) and first aid for burns with acid (chemical) will be radically different. What is the difference between these types of burns? And most importantly, how correctly should first aid be provided for burns of various kinds? Let's try to understand this issue.

First aid for thermal burns

Providing first aid to the victim of a thermal burn, as soon as possible, stop the effects of the damaging factor. If you talk about burns with hot liquid, you need to quickly remove (cut off) clothing soaked in boiling water. If a person has suffered from a flame, it should be as soon as possible to extinguish the burning clothing with water, and then remove it. In addition to water, stew can be done with any improvised means - earth, sand, dense cloth.
Attached to the body clothes should not be removed, since there is a risk of additional damage to the burned surface.

If the victim burns his hands, he should immediately try to remove the bracelets, watches and rings, because in the future time the edema of the entire affected area will develop very quickly, and these objects will squeeze the tissues, which can lead to blood circulation disorders. In such situations, even the development of necrosis is possible.

Next, you should cool the affected areas - immersion in cool water, blowing cold air, applying ice. Then you should give the victim an anesthetic drug - solpenni, nayz, analgin, etc. If the burn was insignificant, then the treatment at this stage can in principle be considered complete.

In the event that the burn was deep, do not carry out any manipulations with the victim - clean the wounds from dirt and scraps of clothes, open the blisters. All that is required is a dry sterile bandage and immediate medical attention.

First aid for chemical burns

Again, to begin with, it is necessary to stop the effects of the damaging factor, namely: remove (if necessary, cut off) impregnated with irritant clothing. After that, the affected areas should be washed with running water. Washing sometimes takes a long time, sometimes up to several hours. Sulfuric acid concentrate and quicklime are first completely and, if possible, removed dryly, because the interaction of these substances with water leads to the generation of additional heat, which can lead to even greater damage.

Some surgeons are of the opinion that with burns with alkali and acid, neutralizing agents should be used, namely, with acid burns - a weak solution of table salt or soap, with alkali burns - a solution of acetic or citric acid. But there is also an opinion that this should not be done, since during neutralization reactions , heat can also begin to be released.
First aid for burns of the oral mucosa and esophagus is reduced to prompt treatment in a medical institution. Only in some cases, when it is simply impossible to get to a doctor in the near future, you should give a drink to the victim a raw egg white or a little milk - these substances will envelop the shell of the damaged mucosa and "bind" the alkali or acid.