Burn Injury Lawyers

Definition:  Burn is defined as tissue damage caused by a variety of agents, such as heat, chemicals, electricity, sunlight, or nuclear radiation. Most common are burns caused by scalds, building fires, and flammable liquids and gases.  There are three degrees of burns:

• First-degree burns affect only the outer layer (called the epidermis) of the skin.
• Second-degree burns damage the epidermis and the layer beneath it (called the dermis).
• Third-degree burns involve damage or complete destruction of the skin to its full depth and damage to underlying tissues.  People who experience such burns often require skin grafting.

Burn Symptoms and Side Effects:

• The swelling and blistering characteristic of burns is caused by the loss of fluid from damaged blood vessels.
• In severe cases, such fluid loss can cause shock, requiring immediate transfusion of the patient with blood or a physiological salt solution to restore adequate fluid levels to maintain blood pressure. 
• Burns often lead to infection due to damage to the skin's protective barrier. In many cases, topical antibiotics (creams or ointments applied to the skin) can prevent or treat such infection. The three topical antibiotics that are most widely used are silver sulfadiazene cream, mafenide acetate cream, and silver nitrate.

Essential Links:

• Burn Injury Statistics
• CDC- Preventing Burn Injuries
• Centers for Disease Control- Treating Burn Injuries
• Burn Shock and Trauma Institute - The Burn and Shock Trauma Institute of Loyola University is a unique community of scientists and clinicians devoted the study of traumatic injury. Scientists investigate the body's reaction to injury and infection, with the hope that their research findings may someday lead to innovative therapies for trauma and burn patients.