What are the taboos in cold therapy?

Burns or scalds often occur in daily life. When people encounter this situation, they often panic, shout, run to the hospital in a panic or hurriedly put soy sauce, alkali or salt on the wound. In fact, these practices often affect the best treatment of wounds, and sometimes even aggravate the condition. Because the heat has burned the skin after the burn, and the heat invading the body will continue to deepen, causing delayed damage to deep tissues.

Then, how to use the on-site facilities where burns or scalds occur to scientifically and reasonably treat the wounds at an early stage, so as to reduce the injuries caused by burns? Cold therapy, cold therapy, after burns, wash the injured limbs under running tap water or soak them in a big basin. If there is no running water, the limbs can be soaked in well water or river water. Cold therapy can reduce local temperature, relieve wound pain, prevent continuous heat damage, and reduce exudation and edema. The duration of cold therapy is about 0.5~ 1 hour, which is based on the fact that there is no severe pain in the wound after stopping cold therapy. The water temperature is generally 15~20℃. If possible, put some ice cubes in the water to reduce the water temperature. Timely cold therapy can neutralize the residual heat invading the body, prevent the heat from continuing to penetrate, prevent the wound from deepening and reduce the depth of tissue burn.

Cold therapy can also relieve edema. After burn, skin capillaries expand rapidly, capillary permeability increases, and a large number of plasma-like substances seep out of blood vessels, forming edema or blisters. Cold therapy can make capillaries expand rapidly due to high temperature, reduce the exudation of plasma-like substances and relieve edema. So the sooner cold therapy is burned, the better. Don't worry about bacteria in the water. Burn wounds will be infected when they come into contact with raw water. Early cold therapy treatment should be carried out without hesitation to minimize the injury. Going to the hospital immediately can get the best treatment, but sometimes it will miss the golden time of wound treatment and cause irreversible damage to deep wounds.

Acid-base burns can cause severe deep burns. Although acid and alkali can be neutralized, the neutralization reaction will generate heat and deepen the depth of the wound. When the head and face are chemically burned, first pay attention to the eyes and see if there is any damage to the cornea, and immediately wash the wound with plenty of water. An exception is quicklime burn, which cannot be washed with water immediately after injury. Because quicklime produces a lot of heat when it meets water, it aggravates the degree of wound injury. Therefore, first of all, we must thoroughly remove the quicklime from the wound surface, and then wash the wound surface with a lot of water. Cold therapy is mostly suitable for small and medium-sized burns of limbs or head and face, and patients' tolerance should be paid attention to in cold season. Large-scale burns are not completely taboo in cold therapy, but it should be considered that cold therapy will reduce the body temperature, which is not conducive to anti-shock treatment.

Cold therapy has a certain mechanical cleaning effect on the wound, and the wound is mostly clean. Do not break or tear the blisters to reduce the chance of contamination of the wound surface.

Do not apply colored drugs or oily dressings on the wound surface, so as not to affect the estimation and treatment of the wound depth. Wrap the wound with clean sheets or dressings for protection, and then send the wounded to the nearest hospital for further treatment.

Once the skin is burned, the damage will be irreversible. Scar formation is inevitable after deep burn, and scar contracture deformity will directly affect the work, study and life of the wounded. Using the short golden time after burn and simply treating the wound will greatly reduce the degree of injury, reduce scar formation and greatly improve the prognosis of the wounded.