[Early treatment of burn wounds]

Primary excision and immediate grafting are limited by blood loss and donor areas. This may never prevent primary excision of burnt hands and face. Excision should be limited to about 20% of the body surface. Delayed primary excision is recommended after pretreatment with Iodine solution, 5% tannic acid solution, and 10% silver nitrate solution. This prevents infection for several weeks when second degree burns healed spontaneously under the artificial scab. Autografts are preferred; if donor areas are lacking staged excision and Chinese intermingled transplantation are performed using homografts containing small autograft islands for covering up to 300 cm2 with 1 cm2 autograft.