About burns and the repair process after burns

The term "burn" will in the following be used about burns from heat, sun burns, etching from acids or bases, abrasions and injury by freezing, because these kinds of injury have many things in common.

Burn injuries are divided in thre grades according to the depth of the injury.

By 1. degree burns only the upper layer of the skin, the epidermis is hurt or destroyed.

By 2. degree burns the injury reaches down into the connective tissue layer of the skin, the dermis, but the whole dermis is not destroyed through the whole of its depth.

By 3. degree burns the whole dermis is destroyed and the injury may reach down tnto the sub-dermis under the dermis.

Symptoms of 1. degree burns are redness and sorenes. If the the damage is only slight, the redness and soreness just goes away in som hours or days. If the whole dermis is injured, there will grow a new dermis under the injured one from cells in the hair follicles, and the old dermis will scale off after some days.

2. degree burns gives liquid accumulation between the dermis and the epidermis, and gives strong pain. If the injury is not too deep, the injured dermis and epidermis will grow back upwards form the intact layer.

By 3. Degre burns, the fat-rich tissue under the dermis is visible. 2. degree burns have to heal by growing back from the rims of the buned area.

Even though the burn destroys a fairly distinct area to som depth, also areas deeper will be hurt to some degree without being destroyed. The blood circulation in this area will be impaired, and the immune functions may be suppressed. These injuries make it difficult for the destroyed tissue to grow back.

When recovering from burn injuries, the skin needs more nutrient than normally, because whole new tissue has to be rebuilt. The rebuilding process is not finished just after the skin has grown back. The new skin or skin layer need good nutrient supplement a long time to get strong and as free from scars as possible.

The recovery from burns and other skin injuries

Skin uses to recover completely from 1. degree burns and other 1. degree injuries. By these types of injuries only the epidermis is hurt, either partially or wholly. If the epidermis is partially hurt, new cells divide from beneath at each point in the injured area and after a short time the epidermis is complete again.

The recovery from 2. degree injuries are usually not so complete. The internal structure of the healed skin will mostly be normal, but the skin can be whiter and less elastic than before, and remain so for a long time, and there can be scars. Over time, however, much of the normal structure can get back.

By these types of injuries, the dermis has to recover at each point in the hurt area from the intact area beneath by cell growth. Also structures such as blood vessels and nerve endings have to recover to some extend. Then new epidermal cells have to proliferate from the deeper areas of the hair folicles to cover the epidermis and then form a new epidermis.

When skin heals from 3. degree injuries, the normal structure is usually not reestablished completely. Hair follickles with sebum glands and sweat glands may be lost. The regrown skin is usually inelastic and will often have scars. The normal coloration will also be lost. Some of the normal structure can however get back over time.

By 3. degree injuries all the layers of the skin has to grow back from the rims of the hurt area. This can take a long time.

By extensive 3. degree injuries, new skin is often transplanted onto the injured area in order to speed up the recovery. By this method one uses to cut off a thin sheat of skin from an area in an area on the body that is not hurt. The skin is not cut off in the total thickness, and in this way the area where the skin is cut off gets a 2. degree injury.

The skin cut off is then pressed so that it widens greatly and it is then transplanted to the injured area. The cells in the transplanted sheet will then proliferate and grow a skin with full thickness.

Treatment of burns, etchings, abrations and scratches

By all types of buns, the injured area must be cleaned and bacteria and other microbes must be held away from the injured area.

By echings with acids or bases it is utmost important that the eching substance is washed totally away. It is useful in those cases to use a neutralizing remedy as a first means. Such a remedy contains buffer substances that neutralize both bases and acids. An immediate action of cleaning and neutralizing is especially necessary when the eyes are affected.

Keeping the burned area cool some time right after the injury by means of rinning water or cold wet packings is very useful to reduce pain and to reduce worsening of the damage. Right after the injury, the affected tissues tend to be damaged even more by processes in the tissues, but cool-keeping for some time helps to reduce the damage. The water will also in most instances clean the sore enough to continue by further treatmant.

Do not pintch holes in blisters to empty the content.

A floating remedy or a gel to kill the bacteria, to sooth iching and to stimulate regrowth can be useful. It is however not generally adviced to use remedies with a high content of fat, oils or fat-like substances for the accute care of burns.

The injured area must be held clean and the topical drug reapplied regulary until the sore is grown.

Another function of such a topical gel is to hinder adhesion between the sores and dressings used over it.

It is also possible to buy dressings saturated by topical remedies with the above mentiones fuctions.

Genereally a burn should be kept isolated form the surroundings with a coating or dressing.

If the injury is small and there comes a crust over the sore that stays on permanently or is reproduced after each cleansing, so that the sore is isolated from contamination by the crust, a coating may may not be necessary.

If however the sore is not well isolated by a crust, if there are blisters and if it is bigger, some sort of coating must be used.

By extensive burns or abrasions or by injuries of third degree, medical help should be sought.



About Aloe Vera

Aloe vera (syn. A. barbadensis Mill., A. vulgaris Lam.) is a species of Aloe, native to northern Africa.

Botannical facts

It is a stemless or very short-stemmed succulent plant growing to 80-100 cm tall, spreading by offsets and root sprouts. The leaves are lanceolate, thick and fleshy, green to grey-green, with a serrated margin. The flowers are produced on a spike up to 90 cm tall, each flower pendulous, with a yellow tubular corolla 2-3 cm long.

Working ingredients and their basic effects

The parts of the plants that are commonly used is the inner parts of the leaves and the juice or gel from these parts.

The juice or gel from the skin or outer parts are irritating and are not used.

A. vera's beneficial properties may be attributed to mucopolysaccharides present in the inner gel of the leaf, especially acemannan (acetylated mannans).

The ingredients stimulate healing of injuries. They also stimulate the immune system. In animals it has been proven that they can stimulate the immune system to attack types ofcancer cells. This effect is not yet well investigated in humans.

Historical uses

Ancient records show that the good properties of Aloe vera has been known for millennia. The knowledge of aloe's therapeutic effect and curative properties have been around for 5,000 years.

In 1962, George Ebers discovered on Egyptian papyri from 1500 BC, How old this knowledge was. Greek and Roman physicians used the plant as a medicine for wounds to heal. Egypt queens were using of the plant in the quest for beauty.

In the Philippines it were used together milk as a means to kidney infections.

Modern medical uses

Aloe Verea juice or extracts of it can stimulate wounded skin to heal better. It is however not effective at preventing injuries from sun and other radiation.

It is also good to alleviat irritation and ulcers in the digestive tract.

Aloe vera can reduce inflammation in the gingiva, the mucosa around the teeth and plaques on the teeth.

An injectable form of acemannan manufactured and marketed by Carrington Laboratories as Acemannan Immunostimulant™ has been approved in the USA for treatment of fibrosarcoma (a type of cancer) in dogs and cats after clinical trials.

It has not been approved for use by humans, and although it is not a drug its sale is controlled and it can only be obtained through a veterinary doctor.