ABLS

[Kiwiology]

LOL it makes me laugh (and kind of cry) that you blokes have a cookie cutter "advanced" class in "life support" for everything under the sun

While I have no specific advice for said class I can offer the following pearls of Kiwisdom (KIwi wisdom) regarding burns

1) Stay at the scene cooling burns unless there are major life threatening problems with the primary survey; running saline in the ambo is nowhere near as good as 20-30 minutes of cool running water at the scene

2) If you have it, cover burns with cling film (Glad Wrap or kitchen film) if you don't have it, get it

3) Analgesia, analgesia, analgesia; burns are horrendously painful and will often require large volumes of pain killers

[Vorenus]

LOL it makes me laugh (and kind of cry) that you blokes have a cookie cutter "advanced" class in "life support" for everything under the sun

While I have no specific advice for said class I can offer the following pearls of Kiwisdom (KIwi wisdom) regarding burns

1) Stay at the scene cooling burns unless there are major life threatening problems with the primary survey; running saline in the ambo is nowhere near as good as 20-30 minutes of cool running water at the scene

With less than 10 percent burned body surface, you might use running lukewarm (15-20 Celsius) water for about 10 mins. More than 10 percent burned body surface contraindicate extensive cooling (more than 3 mins), as well as polytrauma, shock, sedation, etc.

Hypothermia is a high potential risk with burns, don`t forget that.

2) If you have it, cover burns with cling film (Glad Wrap or kitchen film) if you don't have it, get it

Any wrapping should be sterile as possible and should at best not touch the burned body surface.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Vorenus

[Kiwiology]

Cling film (glad wrap) is in the Australasian Burn Council and British Burn Association guidelines for covering of burnt area pre-hospitally

It's cheap, holds in heat, is air tight and keeps out infection

[celticcare]

plus with cling film, you can continue to cool over the top of it. Saline provides great pain relief however, agree with Kiwi *gasp gasp shock gasp* cooling with running water on scene better than what can be done in back of truck.