alexthegreat00 Posted May 10, 2011 Posted May 10, 2011 Once upon a time, before I discovered APC forum and gave up my kewlish ways, I was burning some duct tape with a friend of mine. Why? Because it looked kind of cool and we did not have anything better to do. After a bit of this, I was holding the tape and let the flame get too high. It got stuck to my hand and suddenly my hand was on fire. After 4 or 5 seconds, I was able to stick my hand in my friend's pool and extinguish it. I had a bad second degree burn over the pointer and pinkie finger regions of my right hand. Here we get to the question part. Both burns were about the same size and depth and both developed blisters. Shortly after, I accidentally broke the blister on the pointer region. The part where the blister broke healed much faster and better than the part where the blister was still. Should you break burn blisters? The internet says that the opposite thing should have happened. If youre wondering how the story ends, I was able to hide it for a day before my parents noticed. Then I just bandaged it up. Also, so I do not lose all respect here, I would never even consider doing something like that again and am quite a different person from those days. I am much more aware of the risks and dangers associated with this hobby than then.
nater Posted May 10, 2011 Posted May 10, 2011 ... Should you break burn blisters? The internet says that the opposite thing should have happened. .. The internet is correct. YOU shouldn't break blisters. The blister serves as a barrier to protect open wound from germs while the new skin is developing. However, if you were to be treated in a burn center, they will break the blisters and scub the dead skin away. I haven't had it done to myself, but I've been around the outpatient treatment centers with patients and a couple of co-workers, it looks extremely painful. Everyone I know who has been treated there has said the pain was immense, but the results were worth it. Burns are very susceptible to infection, so it is important that people take the utmost care when treating them. My advice, if the burn is "minor" or small, you are probably okay keeping the wound as clean as possible and dressed with dry, sterile dressings. Try not to break the blister. For moderate to severe burns, you will want to seek professional treatment. The pros do a pretty good job of keeping infection and scar tissue to a minimum.
Zeus Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 A broken blister does heal faster, but it's far more prone to infection, I've had a lot of burns in my time and leaving them alone leaves practically no scarring. Right now I'm looking at a few blisters on my hands, one was left to heal on it's own, it's barely noticable, the other few that burst while I was working healed far quicker, but are sill heavily scarred after a few weeks. So if you can leave them, but if they burst keep them very clean (unless you're like me and never get infections from wounds). All the same, nature figured out a really good way to heal burns, let it do it's thing.
guntoteninfadel Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 ditto ditto ditto....... infection rates are generally low but if it gets infected it can turn bad fast and who wants to risk loosing body parts right.
Mumbles Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 They had actually told me to keep popping my blisters, and then to tear away the top skin layer. This was more from friction and healing of skin grafts than burns though. The ones I received directly from the fire were gone by the time the sedatives wore off. I can assure anyone who is curious, no amount of pain killers can make skin debridement bearable. They say it's one of the few earthly pains worse than child birth.
alexthegreat00 Posted May 11, 2011 Author Posted May 11, 2011 First of all it was not nearly serious enough to warrant a burn center. The reason that I started this was that the blister that I poped healed quickly and is basically unnoticeable. The blister that I did not pop healed slowly and left a pretty visible scar. I just thought it was odd and wondered about other peoples' experiences.
Ralph Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 When I get a blister (weather it be a burn blister or other) I carefully with a very sharp fine point sterilised needle poke it to release some of the blister fluid so that the skin is no longher tight this quickly seals it self over and often needs to be done twice to allow enough of the fluid out than it doesn't hurt (because there is no longer any pressure on the damaged area)
Arthur Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 The blister protects the wound against infection til the underlying tissue can do that job. However IF you can work really cleanly (ie STERILE ) the recovery process is swifter and has less scar tissue without the blister. Typically we are not able to work clean, let alone STERILE, so the advice to keep the blister intact is good.
dagabu Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 They had actually told me to keep popping my blisters, and then to tear away the top skin layer... I can assure anyone who is curious, no amount of pain killers can make skin debridement bearable. My nephew kicked a soup can full of gasoline (petrol for Ralph ) and got third degree burns over 70% of the front of his body. Like Mum, they immediately stripped all of the damaged skin from him. In his case, they put him under when debrideing. -dag
nater Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 My nephew kicked a soup can full of gasoline (petrol for Ralph ) and got third degree burns over 70% of the front of his body. Like Mum, they immediately stripped all of the damaged skin from him. In his case, they put him under when debrideing. -dag That is what I've seen the burn centers do as well. They have the benefit of providing anesthesia, antibiotics, and a sterile field to work in; all of those things you do not have at home. Do the outpatient centers give patients a choice to have sedation or not? Even if painkillers couldn't touch the pain, I don't know if I would want to remember what they were doing.
dagabu Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 He was 10 and could not be controlled when debrideing him. There was no other option. -dag
Arthur Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 The important thing to realise is that the top of the blister is heat sterilised and it keeps the rest of the wound covered. In a DIY first aid situation then the blister risks infection once the top layer is broken. In a hospital burns unit the location is sterile and the tools are sterile and there are antibiotics available so better treatment can be given with the wound open, the infection risk is minimised and treatment is available if needed. As ever there are differences between best practice first aid, and best practice specialist medical care.
nater Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 He was 10 and could not be controlled when debrideing him. There was no other option. -dag I wasn't saying it was a bad idea to sedate people who need to be debrided, in fact quite the opposite. We have handful of different options on the ambulance for pain control and sedation, from mild pain control up to putting people under. Sometimes, it is appropriate to ask the patient how much pain control or sedation they want. Since mumbles said there was no pain medicine that made the treatments bearable, I was wondering if the treatment centers gave their patients the option for "twilight sedation" so you are not fully aware or will remember the treatments, or if they just tell you to deal with the pain. Personally, I can't handle burns very well and if I should ever be badly burned, I would want to forget all about it if possible.
dagabu Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 I wasn't saying it was a bad idea to sedate people who need to be debrided, in fact quite the opposite. We have handful of different options on the ambulance for pain control and sedation, from mild pain control up to putting people under. Sometimes, it is appropriate to ask the patient how much pain control or sedation they want. Since mumbles said there was no pain medicine that made the treatments bearable, I was wondering if the treatment centers gave their patients the option for "twilight sedation" so you are not fully aware or will remember the treatments, or if they just tell you to deal with the pain. Personally, I can't handle burns very well and if I should ever be badly burned, I would want to forget all about it if possible. I know you weren't, I'm just not in the "emoticon" mood today. If ever I am burnt, someone go get one of these bad-boys!! SKIN GUN -dag
Mumbles Posted May 11, 2011 Posted May 11, 2011 They did a very thorough debridement while I was out during a few surgeries I had to have. However, once a day otherwise they'd come in and go to town on the dead and sloughing off skin and otherwise do horrible things. There was one woman who was far worse than anyone else. I dreaded the days I saw her assigned to me. It didn't help she was the least cute of all the nurses. In therapy maybe once a week, they'd remove scabs and dead skin as well. I'm still doing that now, but there is much less to do.
Bonny Posted May 12, 2011 Posted May 12, 2011 They did a very thorough debridement while I was out during a few surgeries I had to have. However, once a day otherwise they'd come in and go to town on the dead and sloughing off skin and otherwise do horrible things. There was one woman who was far worse than anyone else. I dreaded the days I saw her assigned to me. It didn't help she was the least cute of all the nurses. In therapy maybe once a week, they'd remove scabs and dead skin as well. I'm still doing that now, but there is much less to do. Damn that sucks, not only ugly, but rough too!! Although, you could have had a hot freak chick who enjoyed inflicting pain on you... Anyway, I've popped every blister I've ever had, never bothered to check on what heals faster or scars worse.My hands are scarred enough not to notice new ones from years of welding and working with steel. IF your one of those kids/guys that is/was always sick and runny nose etc...(everyone went to school with at least one) then maybe you should let them heal on their own.
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