Summer Burns: Causes, Prevention, Pre-Hospital Care and Transport to Burns Unit

This chapter presents a comprehensive exploration of summer-related burn injuries, encompassing their etiology, preventative strategies, prehospital management, and the essential criteria guiding patient transfer to specialized burns units. As the temperature rises during summer, so does the incidence of burn injuries. This chapter discusses a spectrum of causative agents, including scalds, sunburns, contact burns, and flame-related incidents, all more prevalent in warmer months.

Proactive measures to mitigate burn risks take center stage, emphasizing prudent sun protection, safe outdoor practices, and vigilant heat source handling. Within the burn injury context, efficient prehospital care assumes paramount importance. This chapter meticulously elucidates tailored first aid protocols corresponding to diverse burn categories, highlighting rapid cooling techniques, wound care essentials, and effective pain management strategies. Trained prehospital responders emerge as pivotal actors, entrusted with stabilizing patients, gauging burn severity, and facilitating seamless transitions to specialized medical facilities. In the last part of the chapter, attention shifts to the criteria governing the transportation of burn patients to designated burns units.

This chapter serves as an essential guide for healthcare practitioners, first responders, and stakeholders, offering insights into proactive burn injury prevention, efficacious prehospital intervention, and the meticulous orchestration of patient transfers to burns units during the summer season.