The wound/burn guidelines - 6: Guidelines for the management of burns.

Burnsare a common type of skin injury encountered at all levels of medical facilities from private clinics to core hospitals. Minor burnsheal by topical treatment alone, but moderate to severe burnsrequire systemic management, and skin graftingis often necessary also for topical treatment. Inappropriate initial treatment or delay of initial treatment may exert adverse effects on the subsequent treatment and course. Therefore, accurate evaluation of the severity and initiation of appropriate treatment are necessary. The Guidelines for the Management of BurnInjuries were issued in March 2009 from the Japanese Society for BurnInjuries as guidelines concerning burns, but they were focused on the treatment for extensive and severe burnsin the acute period. Therefore, we prepared guidelines intended to support the appropriate diagnosis and initial treatment for patients with burnsthat are commonly encountered including minor as well as moderate and severe cases. Because of this intention of the present guidelines, there is no recommendation of individual surgical procedures.