Connect
MJA
MJA

First aid for burns: too little, too late and often wrong

Ela J Hyland, John G Harvey and Andrew J A Holland
Med J Aust 2014; 200 (2) || doi: 10.5694/mja13.11179
Published online: 3 February 2014

To the Editor: The Australian and New Zealand Burns Association (ANZBA) defines adequate first aid for acute burns as 20 minutes of cold running water within the first 3 hours of a burn injury.1 Despite first aid campaigns, inappropriate and inadequate first aid treatment for burns continues to occur.2

The full article is accessible to AMA
members and paid subscribers.
Login to MJA or subscribe now.


  • The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW.


Correspondence: ela.hyland@heath.nsw.gov.au

Acknowledgements: 

We would like to acknowledge the State Burn Injury Service, New South Wales, for its valuable contribution.

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

  • 1. Australian and New Zealand Burns Association. Emergency management of severe burns manual. 8th ed. Sydney: The Education Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Burns Association Ltd, 2008.
  • 2. Davies M, Maguire S, Okolie C, et al. How much do parents know about first aid for burns? Burns 2013; 39: 1083-1090.
  • 3. Barlett N, Yuan J, Holland AJ, et al. Optimal duration of cooling for an acute scald contact burn injury in a porcine model. J Burn Care Res 2008; 29: 828-834.
  • 4. Cuttle L, Pearn J, McMillan JR, Kimble RM. A review of first aid treatments for burn injuries. Burns 2009; 35: 768-775.

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.