Search

Skip to main content Accessibility help

Only show content I have access to (0)

Chapters (1)

Over 3 years (1)

From year:

To year:

Apply

Medicine (1)

Cambridge University Press (1)

1 results

Chapter 19 - Burn Care in a Field Hospital Environment
from Section 4 - Clinical Considerations
- By Alan Kay
Edited by Elhanan Bar-On, Kobi Peleg, Yitshak Kreiss
Book:

Field Hospitals

Published online:

09 January 2020

Print publication:

09 January 2020, pp 196-204
- Chapter
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation
Summary

Field hospitals are usually deployed to locations where, in response to adverse circumstances, normal health care is challenged. It is known that the prevalence of burn wounds in such situations is raised and it is highly likely that a field hospital will need to provide burn care. Many of the features of modern high-quality burn care are not deliverable in a field hospital and it is unlikely the best outcomes can be achieved. Burn care draws heavily on resources. Burns over about 30% total body surface area may cause significant physiological derangement requiring sophisticated critical care. If definitive surgical care of the wound is to be undertaken it is probably better to delay wound excision for about two weeks to allow superficial burns to heal spontaneously. Surgery should ideally be performed in repeated short sessions rather than a single large procedure.