Don’t rush to hospital with a burn

It’s now barbeque season, and with this in mind, new research has shown that the best first aid for a burn is to run cool water over the affected skin for at least 20 minutes.This should be started as soon as possible after the event.

In a study of 2,500 children, those given the full 20 minutes treatment were less likely to need hospital admission and half as likely to need a skin graft.

My comment: In my childhood my mother put butter on burns. Don’t do this! It does not work. The area that I notice most people have burns is on their wrists on the thumb side. This is from removing hot dishes from the oven and brushing their arm against the hot door or oven sides. Of course you are carrying a hot, full dish of food, so can’t pull back as fast as you would like. Although many of us then run our arms under a tap, it would be a good idea to do this for longer than it takes for the immediate pain to subside. You can also use oven gauntlets in preference to gloves or folded up tea towels as these are longer in the arm. 

BMJ 2019; 367:1572