Define Non-Dietary Treatment of Burns?
While good nutritional care should be provided to the patient as soon as feasible it is equally imperative and at times critical to provide efficient and appropriate physical care to the patient to minimize trauma, pain and ensure re-habilitation. Some important aspects of non-dietary treatment are being briefed below. The most immediate step is removal of the burning agent from the patient to prevent further damage. For example, fires are extinguished. Clothing-especially any that is smoldering (such as inelted synthetic shirts), covered with hot tar, or soaked with chemicals should he immediately removed.
Hospitalization is sometimes necessary for optimal care of bum injuries. For example, elevating a severely burned arm or leg above the level of the heart to prevent swelling is more easily accommodated in a hospital. In addition, bums those prevents a person from performing essential daily functions, such as walking or eating, make hospitalization necessary. Severe burns, deep second- and third-degree bums, bums occurring in the very young or the very old, and bums involving the hands, feet, face, or genitals are usually best treated at burn centres. Burn centres are hospitals or wards in a hospital that are specially equipped and staffed to care for burn victims.