The Healing Process for Burns

A burn destroys skin cells which is incredibly painful. A minor burn may heal in similarity to a cut, forming a blister over the injured area. The white blood cells begin to attack the bacteria and a layer of new skin will begin to grow around the edges of the burn area.

However, when a major burn happens, going deep into the skin or covering a large portion of the body, the results can be very dangerous. Major burn areas can’t grow new skin fast enough before bacteria arrive and the possibility of infection grows exponentially. That is way serious burns are often treated with skin grafts.

So what is expected during the healing process for burns?

Since a burn destroys the skin, the body’s reaction is to close the wound by bringing the surrounding skin towards the burn to make the wound itself smaller. If a burn is deep there may be a lack of the healing elements and the body has a harder time trying to cover the wound. In this case, the body will try to close the wound by having the skin surrounding the burnt area come together. This process is called contraction and the wound will actually become smaller. Rehabilitation therapy helps to restore movement to the areas that have been affected.

Of course, scarring occurs after a burn. When a burn affects a body joint the healing process will involved limited movement of the affected area. Since the body’s response is to make the wound smaller, there is a loss of skin which can make the burn scar over a joint very hard to move. Burn scars can sometimes affect one’s ability to move the joint within a full range of motion, however, through therapy, it’s possible that most of the motion ability can return over time.

Post-burn sensations happen when a burn has damaged the nerve endings in the skin. The nerves do regrow, however during the healing process one’s sense of touch can be changed. Areas of injury are often less sensitive to touch, as the sensation is felt through the skin. The process of nerve regeneration can be very slow and sometimes the sense of touch in an affected area remains different permanently.

Lastly, it is natural for the burned area of skin to appear inflamed. As the new skin matures the redness that is expected will begin to slowly decrease. The process of skin to return to it’s near-normal color can take anywhere from one to two years.

Originally published on John Brewer’s website.