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Burn Injury Research Papers

Decent Essays

Problem Description Burn injuries are a commonly seen in the United States. The most common mechanism of injury is a fire or flame, followed by scald, contact, electrical, and chemical burns. The majority of burns occur at a home or residence (ABA, 2017). Primary care providers should be informed of the most current evidence-based practice guidelines when caring for burn wounds. For decades, the first-line treatment of partial thickness burn wounds has been and continues to be, silver sulfadiazine (SSD) cream (Zacharevskij et al, 2017).
After a burn injury occurs, the body commonly generates eschar which is necrotic tissue and dried secretions from the wound. SSD cream helps to soften and remove eschar with mechanical debridement during dressing …show more content…

These downfalls include, twice daily dressing changes, painful debridement with each dressing change, and pseudoeschar formation (Zacharevskij et al, 2017). While SSD cream should be helping to soften and remove forming eschar, it can also be causing a soft layer of eschar as well. Therefore, an important question is: In patients with partial thickness burns, would the use of hydrocolloid dressings compared to the use of SSD cream increase healing time and function by reducing scaring over a period of six months? This evidence-based practice project will delve into which burn dressing is more appropriate for the first-line treatment in partial thickness burn …show more content…

Burn wounds are extremely painful, and for many patients dressing changes are excruciating every time they are performed (Edwards, 2011). Patients not only experience the background pain that is constant from a burn wound, but also the procedural pain that is accompanied by dressing changes. Burn patients also endure anticipatory pain which is the worsening in pain due to the expectation of pain that is to come from dressing changes (Edwards, 2011). If dressings can be reduced from twice daily to every three to five days, the amount of pain reduction for these patients would be astronomical. Even if the hydrocolloid dressing could not last three days due to exudate, reducing dressing changes from twice daily to daily is still beneficial to the

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