How to Assess a Burn Injury

Video Transcript

"Let's talk for a minute about assessing different kinds of burns. Typically, there are three types of burns, that you might encounter, first degree, second degree, and third degree burns. First degree burns usually are not anything to really worry about. Typically, when you have a first degree burn, there will be some redness on the skin, it will be painful to the touch. That could last for a little while, but typically, there's no real damage done, it's just a superficial burn. Second degree burn, you can tell that, because normally there's redness, blistering, and extreme pain, which can last for quite a while. Second degree burns are more severe, more serious. Typically, it hasn't burned all the way through three layers of skin, just usually the top two. When it does burn through all three layers of skin, that's what we call a third degree burn, and with that actually, there's redness, there can be blistering, there can be charring of the skin, and typically, those are not painful, because all of the nerves in the area, are completely dead. Typically, when you're determining the total surface area of a burn, you want to be very careful, if 15% or more of the body has been burned, because that is usually when it can become fatal. In order to tell what percentage of the surface area of your body has been burned, you can use what's called the rule on nines. Using the rule of nines, each extremity, each upper extremity, your arms, constitute 9% of your total body surface area. Each of your legs are 18%, or 2 x 9. The front of your body is 9%. The back of your torso, is 9%. The front of your face, and the back of your head, are 9%, and your groin area, is 1%, and typically, for example, if you burn all of one arm, and maybe part of your chest, that's a very severe burn, that's going to be more than 15%. You need to seek medical attention immediately. If you happen to burn yourself in the wilderness, and it's a second or third degree burn, a more serious burn, there's really not too much you can do, without modern medicine. What you're going to want to do in the meantime, until you can get to some real help, is just cover it. Make sure you cover it with sterile dressings, loosely. You don't want the sterile dressings to be too tightly, but you basically just need to make sure that they stay covered, to prevent further infection."