The Degree Trio: Analyzing Burn Injuries

Heat is the primary factor that causes tissue damage in a burn injury. Tissue damage caused by excessive amount of heat can penetrate specific levels of epithelial tissues, particularly the skin, from the safety of the epidermis down to the subcutaneous fat that protects and cushions the skin from contact to the insides.

The ease of treatment for burn injuries depends on the severity of the problem. In standard medicine, and also in common knowledge, there are three basic degrees of damage that one could acquire in a burn injury based on the criteria enumerated above.

First Degree Burns

First degree burns are your typical boiling-water-suddenly-gone-haywire case. Its symptoms are simply redness in the affected part and extreme pain. There are very little to no complications arising from this condition. When this happens though, immediate care is required since the transferred heat can persist and cause greater damage and pain. It is recommended to immerse the affected part of the body in cold (not ice-cold since it can worsen tissue damage) water.

Second Degree Burns

Second degree burns are perhaps the most painful of all the types of burn injuries, and are further divided into two sublevels:

•  Superficial Partial Thickness

o This type of burn affects the top part of the dermis. The dermis is the deeper section of the skin where many receptors and blood vessels reside. It is designed as a support for hair follicles, sweat glands and oil glands.

•  Deep Partial Thickness

o This affects a deeper section of the dermis, causing extensive damage to the integrity of the skin in general.

Although the two types are different in terms of depth, the general treatment for both comprises of the same procedures, albeit consuming more time for worse injuries obviously.

Third Degree Burns

Third degree burns are painless, not because they are much lighter injuries but because they are worse. Third degree burns affect the whole dermis and typically requires considerable treatment for full recovery. Skin grafting and skin excision is required to reestablish feeling in the region.

A burn injury can be classified as a personal injury case if proper legal conditions are met.