Burns and Electric Shock | Kaiser Permanente

Overview

Most burns are minor injuries that occur at home or work. It’s common to get a minor burn from hot water, a curling iron, or touching a hot stove. Home treatment is usually all that’s needed for healing and to prevent other problems, such as infection.

There are many types of burns.

• Heat burns (thermal burns) are caused by fire, steam, hot objects, or hot liquids. Scald burns from hot liquids are the most common burns to children and older adults.
• Cold temperature burns are caused by skin exposure to wet, windy, or cold conditions. They can also be caused by touching cold items such as dry ice without protection.
• Electrical burns are caused by contact with electrical sources or by lightning.
• Chemical burns are caused by contact with household or industrial chemicals in a liquid, solid, or gas form, such as acids. Natural foods such as chili peppers, which contain a substance that irritates the skin, can cause a burning sensation.
• Radiation burns are caused by the sun, tanning booths, sunlamps, X-rays, or radiation therapy for cancer treatment.
• Friction burns are caused by contact with any hard surface such as roads (“road rash”), carpets, or gym floor surfaces. They are usually both a scrape (abrasion) and a heat burn.

Breathing in hot air or gases can injure your lungs (inhalation injuries).

Burns injure the skin layers. They can also injure other parts of the body, such as muscles, blood vessels, nerves, lungs, and eyes. Burns are defined as first-, second-, third-, or fourth-degree, depending on how many layers of skin and tissue are burned. The deeper the burn and the larger the burned area, the more serious the burn is.

How serious a burn is depends on several things, such as:

• The depth, size, and cause of the burn; the affected body area; and the age and health of the burn victim.
• Any other injuries that occurred, and the need for follow-up care.

Burns in children

Babies and young children may have a more severe reaction from a serious burn than an adult. A burn in an adult may cause a minor loss of fluids from the body. But in a baby or young child, the same size and depth of a burn may cause a severe fluid loss.

How safe a child’s environment needs to be depends on the child’s age and how much the child needs to be supervised. At each stage of a child’s life, look for burn hazards. Then use appropriate safety measures to keep things out of a child’s reach. Since most burns happen in the home, simple safety measures decrease the chance of anyone getting burned.

When a child or vulnerable adult is burned, it’s important to find out how the burn happened. If the reported cause of the burn doesn’t match how the burn looks, it may be a sign of abuse. In that case, resources for help, such as social services, are offered. Self-inflicted burns will need treatment as well as an evaluation of the person’s emotional health.

Infection

Infection is a concern with all burns. Watch for signs of infection during the healing process. Home treatment for a minor burn will reduce the risk of infection. Deep burns with open blisters are more likely to get infected and need medical treatment.