Synonyms in a broader sense
Burn trauma, burns, burn injury, combustio, burn English: burn injury burns are divided into 3-4 degrees of severity, which are based on the depth of the destroyed skin layers and allow an initial prognosis of the chances of healing. The higher the temperature and the longer the exposure time to the body, the more severe the burn.
- Burn I°: it only affects the epidermis, is characterized by redness, swelling and pain and usually heals completely.
A more frequent 1st degree burn is sunburn.
- Burning II°: It reaches into the dermis, which contains small vessels for skin supply, as well as sebaceous and sweat glands, and the hair roots. The symptoms are severe pain, redness, swelling and blistering. Depending on the depth of the affected dermis, the 2nd degree burn is further divided into type 2a, which usually heals completely like the 1st degree burn, and type 2b, which causes scarring.
- Burning III°: Here the subcutaneous tissue is also affected, whereby the intensity of the heat often left behind overcooked (white) as well as charred (black) tissue.
Since the skin nerves are destroyed at this degree, patients usually have no more pain. Affected skin is irretrievably lost and must be replaced by a graft.
- Burning IV°: These are the most severe charring, which has reached not only skin but also any underlying tissue (muscle, bone).
In addition to the degree of a burn, it is also assessed according to the affected body surface. For adults, the so-called rule of nine is used here, according to which the head, one arm, one leg front, one leg back, the chest, the belly, the upper back and the lower back are each assigned 9% body surface area.
The missing percentage is the genitals. A further characteristic for estimating the severity is the inhalation trauma, which occurs when inhaling in the direct vicinity of fire or explosion. An adult is considered to have a severe burn if the burned body surface exceeds 15%, or 7.5% with inhalation trauma, and a child if the burn is 10% or 5% with inhalation trauma.
A patient with a severe burn should be taken to a specialized burn center, especially if the face or genitals are involved. From about 15% of burned body surface, after the accident the so-called burn disease occurs, in which the whole organism suffers from the consequences of the burn. The burn itself and the destroyed skin areas cause a large loss of fluid, which also affects the composition of the blood and can lead to a volume deficiency shock.
Many body proteins are also lost due to damaged vascular barriers, which reduces their respective function in the body and in turn strains the circulatory system. In addition, there is a massive release of tissue components to which a body-wide immune reaction occurs. These are all causes of impending cardiovascular failure, acute lung failure, acute kidney failure, liver failure and intestinal paralysis.
Another major risk in the case of a more severe burn is infection of the affected skin areas, as their barrier function is limited or even eliminated. This can develop until the germs are distributed throughout the body (sepsis) and is life-threatening.
