Intended for healthcare professionals

Careers

Burns

BMJ 2008; 336 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39434.772940.CE (Published 12 January 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;336:gp18
  1. Negin Shamsian, specialist registrar in plastic surgery (neginshamsian@yahoo.com)
  1. 1Manchester

www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/burns/burnsmgt.pdf, which was developed by the New South Wales Health Department, is an excellent resource on the management of burns. It includes an introduction to burns injuries, Australian referral guidelines, assessment of burns, first aid, scar management, and physiotherapy. Although it was written in 1996 it is still endorsed by the board of the Australian and New Zealand Burn Association.

Medline plus (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/burns.html), a patient information resource, has an excellent interactive 40 page tutorial on burns injuries. It is a user friendly site with useful information for patients with burns. It also contains a section on preventing injuries. It has useful links to additional resources worldwide.

BUPA’s homepage on burns (http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/burns.html) gives the definition of a burn, types of burns, and management. The information is concise and aimed at the general public.

Medicine.net(www.medicinenet.com/burns/article.htm)uses the American burns classification system for depth and is therefore not particularly relevant to British readers. It does, however, contain a useful burns glossary for people unfamiliar with the terminology.

Probably one of the most comprehensive online burns references is Emedicine (www.emedicine.com/plastic/BURNS.htm). This is an excellent resource for medical students and plastic surgery trainees alike. It has numerous chapters on burns: chemical burns, electrical burns, lightning injuries, rehabilitation and reconstruction, resuscitation and early management, and thermal injuries.