What not to do for thermal and sunburn

In this article we will tell you:

• What can a chemical burn be like?
• How to understand what exactly got into your eyes?
• The first signs of a chemical burn to the eyes
• First aid for chemical burns
• Why is it necessary to go to the doctor after a chemical burn to the eyes?
• How to assess the degree of eye damage from a chemical burn?
• How are patients with chemical eye burns treated?
• How to prevent eye burns?

Chemical burns to the eyes account for about 10% of eye injuries for which people consult doctors. And since this happens so often, everyone should know how to properly provide first aid for a chemical burn to the eyes.

Most of them happen at work, for example, in industries where they work with chemicals. Chemical burns also often occur in the home from cleaning products or other common household products. They can also be very dangerous and cause irreparable damage to the organ of vision, they must be treated seriously and immediately.

What can a chemical burn be like?

• Alkaline. This is the most dangerous type of chemical injury to the eye - alkali dissolves the tissue of the eye and penetrates deep into it. The higher its concentration, the faster necrosis occurs. Possible if ammonia bleach, cleaner, lime, cement or magnesium comes into contact with eyes;
• Acidic. It is caused by vinegar, acetone, peeling solutions or glass polish. Typically, with such a burn, only the cornea is affected. But concentrated hydrofluoric or sulfuric acid can melt tissue right down to the lens. Damage to the cornea itself can also cause loss of vision - a thorn appears on the eye;
• From other irritants, such as pepper spray.

Degree of damage to skin and mucous membranes

The severity of the injury depends on the extent to which the alcohol penetrates the soft tissue. Undiluted ethanol is for external use only. If you drink it, it can cause damage to the mucous membranes, swelling of the larynx, and difficulty breathing.

Based on the depth of damage to the skin, there are 4 degrees of burns:

• First. The outer layer of cells that line the surface of the body is destroyed. It manifests itself as moderate pain, swelling and redness of the tissues.
• Second. Alcohol penetrates the epidermis down to the basal layer, due to which skin regeneration occurs. Small blisters form, which sometimes merge with each other.
• Third. The epidermis and connective tissue part of the skin, called the dermis, are damaged. If the sebaceous glands and hair follicles remain unaffected, a 3A degree burn is diagnosed. Wounds heal on their own, but only if they are not infected. Injured tissues become covered with a dark brown scab, around which blisters form. If cell death occurs down to the fat layer, a 3B degree burn is diagnosed. Such injuries are treated in a clinical setting.
• Fourth. This is the most severe degree of burn, in which the skin, muscles, fatty tissue, and bones are charred. It is impossible to get such damage even with undiluted alcohol.

If liquid gets inside, the victim is given emergency assistance. Correct and timely treatment prevents complications - burn shock, intoxication, internal bleeding, etc.

How to understand what exactly got into your eyes?

In order not to waste precious time finding out the cause, it is better to consult a doctor as soon as possible. It is very difficult to visually determine what caused the burn. For example, if there are crusts, one can only assume that acid has gotten into the eyes, but in reality it is difficult to see them. Everything is complicated by the fact that due to the reflex, the eyelids are tightly closed during a burn. Therefore, the conclusion is usually made based on what the person has worked with. If the victim has used ammonia bleaches, cleaners, lime, cement or magnesium, this is definitely an alkaline injury.

Precautionary measures

Preventing burns involves following safety precautions when working with chemicals. To avoid burns, you should:

• use the drug only externally;
• dilute alcohol with water when using it as an antiseptic;
• Store ethanol in glass containers out of the reach of children.

When using an alcohol compress, you should always dilute ethanol with boiled water. If you take undiluted alcohol orally, you need to rinse your stomach and call a doctor at home.

First aid for chemical burns:

❗ Do not try to wash off acids with alkali and vice versa - this can only worsen the damage. Also, do not rinse with water if lime or superglue gets into your eyes. According to experts, treating a combined corneal burn is much more difficult. Try to see a doctor as soon as possible for examination and treatment.

❗ Regardless of the type of chemical burn to the eyes, the first thing to do is to carefully open the eyelids and thoroughly rinse the eyes from the outer edge to the inner. This can be done using a rubber bulb, a pipette, a syringe without a needle, or simply with your palms. The same procedure is performed for thermal burns.

❗ It is best to wash your eyes with purified or boiled water, but running water (12-18°C) will also do. You can bend over and put your eye under the faucet. The procedure time is at least 20 minutes. This is necessary in order to reduce the concentration of the substance. After you have washed the substance from the victim’s eyes, you can drip a 4-5% solution of lidocaine, novocaine or another anesthetic and take a pain reliever.

❗ If a powdery chemical gets into your eyes, remove its remnants from your eyes with a dry cotton swab before rinsing.

What is prohibited to do

When providing first aid, many make mistakes that aggravate the victim’s well-being:

• lubricate burns with vegetable oil;
• touch the wound with dirty hands;
• puncture blisters on the skin;
• apply sour cream to injured tissues;
• apply ice;
• treat the skin with an antibiotic;
• apply a tight bandage.

Do not try to neutralize alcohol with other chemicals. It is enough to rinse the wound with clean water. If it is deep, bleeding or very painful, you need to call a doctor.

Why is it necessary to go to the doctor after a chemical burn to the eyes?

Even if you feel better after first aid, ophthalmologists strongly recommend calling an ambulance or going to the hospital yourself. The fact is that sometimes the first symptoms may indicate a mild degree of damage, and after a day irreversible changes, such as blindness, may occur.

Doctors will help remove possible particles of foreign bodies and rinse the eyes again with neutral antiseptic solutions. They will also determine the severity and depth of the lesion and prescribe therapy based on this.

How can you get burned by alcohol?

Alcohol is an active chemical that is used both in the home and in medicine. And quite often, if you handle it carelessly, you can get injured.

Most often, alcohol burns are visible on the skin. Such changes can occur in people with fairly delicate and sensitive skin. They can be obtained during the treatment of wounds or when cauterizing acne.

Alcohol tinctures are used to treat various diseases. If such concentrated drugs enter the larynx or esophagus, they cause damage to internal tissues. Lubricating or gargling with saturated alcohol for pharyngitis can cause a burn to the mucous membrane.

Internal tissue injuries can also occur at home as a result of accidental consumption of strong alcohol. In either case, the extent of damage depends largely on the duration of exposure to the chemical and the percentage of the chemical in the solution.

How to assess the degree of eye damage from a chemical burn?

1. I degree - superficial damage with slight redness of the eye shell (conjunctiva) and eyelids, a slight defect in the surface of the cornea. Does not require special treatment and does not threaten vision;
2. Average, or II degree - superficial death of the mucous membrane of the eye and conjunctiva, swelling, damage to the transparent and epithelial layer of the cornea. Grayish-cloudy lesions on the surface of the eye, blisters and peeling on the skin of the eyelids may be visible. In such cases, scars may appear on the surface of the cornea and partial deterioration of vision;
3. Severe, or III degree - damage to up to 50% of the surface of the eyeball. There is a process of tissue death throughout the conjunctiva and its lower layers, sclera and cartilage of the eyelids. If the eyelids are opened, the eye will look pale and very swollen. Due to a burn, the cornea loses its moisture and ceases to be transparent;
4. Particularly severe, or grade IV - redness, swelling, darker areas are visible (deep necrosis). The conjunctiva and sclera darken. Due to a severe burn of the cornea, holes appear on it, it becomes gray, and the internal structures of the eye also suffer. At this stage, the likelihood of complete loss of vision is very high.

Possible complications

Chemical damage is fraught with bacterial complications. Rubbing alcohol destroys the protective layer of the epidermis, leaving the skin vulnerable to infection. Possible complications of a burn injury include:

• abscesses;
• regional lymphadenitis;
• loss of vision;
• endophthalmitis;
• blepharitis;
• swelling of the pharyngeal mucosa;
• ulceration of the gastric mucosa;
• internal bleeding.

Accidental ingestion of alcohol is dangerous due to difficulty breathing and burn shock. The greatest danger is a 3rd degree burn of the esophagus. The mortality rate of patients in this group is 60%.

How are patients with chemical eye burns treated?

First, the hospital conducts diagnostics: they check vision, do an ultrasound of the organ of vision, biomicroscopy, measure intraocular pressure and perform a fundus check. This is necessary to assess the condition of the cornea, anterior chamber, lens, conjunctiva and eyelids. If the doctor detects signs of third or fourth degree damage, the patient is admitted to the hospital. In other cases, treatment at home, taking into account the recommendations of an ophthalmologist, will be sufficient. Typically, the ophthalmologist prescribes anti-inflammatory and antibacterial eye drops and gels for faster tissue healing.

Severe injuries may require surgery. It is done either in the first hours or days after a burn, if necessary to save the organ. Most often, surgical intervention waits until complete healing occurs.

Further recovery

Anti-burn drug therapy is aimed at restoring the skin and mucous membranes. The treatment regimen includes medications that:

• eliminate pain;
• relieve inflammation and swelling;
• destroy pathogenic flora;
• heal damaged tissues.

Ointments and patches for application to the skin

If alcohol gets on the skin, local antiseptics and regenerating ointments are used. Effective drugs include:

• Syntomycin ointment is an antibacterial agent that destroys bacteria on the surface of the epidermis. Prevents infectious inflammation of alcohol burns. Apply openly twice a day.
• Rescuer is a drug with anti-inflammatory, wound-healing and antiseptic properties. For chemical and thermal burns, apply three times a day.
• Ebermin is a regenerating ointment that stimulates skin restoration in non-healing wounds. For burns, apply medical alcohol under a bandage 2-3 times a day.
• Eplan is a wound-healing gel that normalizes water-lipid balance. Strengthens the protective barrier function of the skin, preventing infection of wounds. Prescribed for all types of burns. Apply 2-4 times a day for a week.
• Dermazin is an antiseptic with an antimicrobial effect, which contains silver sulfadiazine. Used to treat superficial wounds and infected burns. Apply to cleansed skin once, and in severe cases – 2 times a day.

For superficial burns with medical alcohol, it is recommended to use special patches with a gel cushion - Silkoplast, Cosmos, Parapran, Branolind. If blisters form on the skin, use antiseptic patches made of water-permeable materials.

Eye treatments

Contact of alcohol in the eyes causes acute pain and burning. To prevent purulent inflammation of the conjunctiva, use drops and creams with antibacterial components:

• Tobrex is an aminoglycoside antibiotic that is used to prevent infectious inflammation of burns;
• Floxal is an antibacterial ointment from the fluoroquinolone group that destroys most known microbes;
• Normax - antimicrobial drops that accelerate the healing of damaged corneas;
• Vitabax - antiseptic drops with bactericidal properties that prevent bacterial inflammation of the conjunctiva.

Special lenses are sometimes prescribed to protect the eyes from infection. For burns of the skin of the eyelids, Dermazol, Erythromycin ointment, and Solcoseryl are used.

It is strictly not recommended to use traditional medicine - vegetable oils, egg white or yolk, sour cream, kefir, etc. - to heal burn wounds. Natural products create a favorable environment for the proliferation of pathogenic microbes.

Features of treatment for burns of the esophagus and stomach

Internal injuries to the gastrointestinal mucosa are treated in the hospital due to their inaccessibility. When the victim is admitted to the hospital, complex therapy is carried out:

• Neutralization of alcohol. The esophagus is generously irrigated with oil, after which the stomach contents are removed through a tube. Washing is carried out only within 6 hours after receiving a burn. Later it makes no sense.
• Antibacterial therapy. To prevent bacterial complications, the patient is administered antimicrobial drugs from the group of cephalosporins or fluoroquinolones.

With a 2nd degree burn, the patient begins to feed only on the seventh day after the start of treatment. At the same time, bougienage is carried out - tubes of various diameters are inserted into the lumen of the esophagus, which prevent scarring of the mucous membranes. With timely assistance, complications occur only in 7-10% of cases.

Symptoms

It is quite easy to burn yourself with alcohol; this often happens when you use it carelessly with a chemical. Liquid can get onto the surface of the body when pouring a solution. But alcohol burns on the face are considered much more dangerous, especially if the substance gets on the surface of the mucous membranes or on the eyes.

Important! If concentrated alcohol gets into the mouth, injury to the gums, tongue, larynx, and esophagus may occur. It is worth neutralizing the negative effect of the solution as soon as possible; to do this, the area with the substance must be quickly rinsed with water.

Knowing how an alcohol burn to the skin manifests itself will allow for adequate and appropriate treatment. Symptoms may vary depending on the injured area.

How to recognize acute alcohol poisoning?

Any, even mild intoxication is a set of symptoms of intoxication. A person begins to experience noise in the ears, vision and hearing are distorted, speech becomes confused, and thinking becomes difficult. Alcohol may cause nausea, shortness of breath, and problems with coordination of movements. All these manifestations are dangerous, but not critical. They are not life threatening.

Acute ethanol poisoning occurs differently:

• consciousness becomes cloudy, becomes confused: there is no orientation in time, the person does not understand where he is, cannot answer questions;
• vomiting - profuse, prolonged;
• the appearance of seizures, trembling of the arms or legs, and other neurological symptoms;
• the skin noticeably pales, becomes bluish, lips may turn blue;
• breathing - irregular or rare (the intervals between breaths are not equal, longer than 7-10 seconds);
• body temperature decreases (falls below 36.2°C).

Important: loss of consciousness, sudden falling asleep, in which the victim cannot be awakened, are dangerous in combination with symptoms of both mild intoxication and acute intoxication. You can’t wait for a person to “sleep it off”; it’s dangerous with death. You need to urgently call an ambulance.

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With a high concentration of ethanol in the blood, an alcoholic coma can develop:

• superficial - a person loses consciousness, does not respond to speech, but pupillary reflexes are partially preserved, muscle tone changes (becomes low or high);
• deep: the patient is unconscious, the pupils do not react to light, body temperature drops sharply, muscles relax, pain sensitivity is lost.

After recovery from a coma or relief of acute symptoms, complications may develop:

• visual and auditory hallucinations, psychomotor agitation;
• increased convulsive syndrome;
• alcoholic delirium;
• complete or partial loss of vision (temporary);
• disorders of the respiratory system.

If there is a risk of complications after detoxification, the patient is left in the hospital to monitor his condition.

If there is a possibility of poisoning not only with ethanol, but also with other forms of alcohol, the victim needs emergency medical care, even if the symptoms are still mild. It can build up quickly. Methanol, ethylene glycol, and isopropyl alcohol, which are contained in technical fluids, lotions, household chemicals, etc., are especially dangerous. They can cause respiratory arrest, loss of vision, decreased blood pressure, vomiting (including blood), and coma.

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Why do antiseptics dry hands?

Frequent hand washing with soap and the use of antiseptics dry the skin of the hands due to the active composition:

• Surfactants – surfactants;
• ethanol;
• tertiary, quaternary amines;
• povidone-iodine.

Excipients in the composition: water, fragrances. All active components perform one function: destruction of the lipid membrane of microorganisms. Thus, the bacterium, which is attached to the skin of the hands with the help of its shell, will simply be washed away.

For an antiseptic to kill bacteria, the concentration of the active substance must be at least 60–70%. This amount of alcohol in itself is detrimental to the condition of the skin. With the lipid shell of microorganisms, the lipid layer of the epidermis is also destroyed.

Alternative sanitizers

If the skin of your hands reacts sensitively after an antiseptic, you can choose a composition with chlorhexidine. The following components will additionally take care of your hand skin:

• D-panthenol – softens, moisturizes the dermis, enhances the regeneration of damaged tissues. Heals wounds and eliminates discomfort.
• Lavender essential oil has an additional antifungal effect.
• Levomenthol is a natural antiseptic with a cooling effect. By itself, it is weak to fight viruses, but as part of auxiliary components it enhances the effect of sanitizers.
• Aloe extract actively moisturizes, enhances the production of collagen and hyaluronic acid. The skin restores its own hydration mechanisms.

Both alcohol-based antiseptics and their analogues do not completely replace hand washing with soap. In case of acute skin reaction, you can choose soap with the listed ingredients to maintain the condition of your hands.