Urgent Care Management of Patients With Thermal Burns

Points & Pearls Excerpt

• First-degree burns are superficial and involve only the epidermis. Second-degree burns are partial-thickness and involve the dermis. Third-degree burns are full-thickness and invade subcutaneous structures. (See Table 1.)
• If cooling has not been initiated before arrival, delayed cooling in UC may still be helpful up to 3 hours after the injury.
• Physical examination findings are the only method for UC clinicians to classify burns; however, these findings are only moderately reliable for estimating burn depth.