Anaesthesia | Patient specific populations | Initial assessment of the burns patient

Initial Assessment of the Burns Patient
Session Overview
Description
This session describes the structured approach to assessing patients presenting with burns. It introduces the core knowledge to allow healthcare providers to deal competently with this urgent and often life-threatening problem.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Explain the priorities in the initial assessment of the patient presenting with a burn injury
• List the signs and symptoms of patients presenting with airway burns
• Describe the immediate first aid steps to reduce the severity and impact of the burn injury
• Classify the depth and size of the burn and identify those patients requiring management in a specialist burns centre
• Identify those patients whose burn injury is associated with non-accidental injury

Burn injuries are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and present a difficult challenge to most healthcare personnel.

Some burns occur as genuine accidents, but most are caused by carelessness or inattention, or may follow alcohol or drug abuse.

Like other forms of injury, burns tend to be frequent in the extremes of age.