Burns dressings

Burn injuries are common and costly; each year, there are more than 200,000 cases, costing the Australian community $150 million. Management of smaller burn injuries in the community can be improved by appropriate first aid, good burn dressings and wound management. This can reduce the risk of the burn becoming deeper or infected, and can potentially reduce the requirement for specialist review or surgery.

The objective of this article is to provide healthcare professionals with information about the pathophysiology of burn wound progression. This information includes the aims of burn wound dressings and indications for different types of dressings in different burn depths, advantages of blister debridement, and the reasoning behind advice given to patients after healing of the burn wound.

This article provides a framework used by the State Burn Service of Western Australia, by which clinicians can understand the needs of a specific burn wound and apply these principles when choosing an appropriate burn dressing for their patient. Every intervention in the journey of a patient with a burn injury affects their eventual outcome. By managing all burn injuries effectively at every single step, we can reduce burn injury morbidity as a community.