Acute Hospital: A facility where initial care and medical stabilization takes place. Any necessary surgeries will take place in acute hospitals.

 

Blister: A fluid-filled sac between the first and second layer of skin. Some blisters may go away on their own. Others may need to be opened by the team during wound care.

 

Burns:

• First degree (superficial)
• Second-degree (partial thickness)
• Third-degree (full thickness)

 

Care Conference: A team meeting, including caregivers, to discuss progress, concerns and to prepare for your child to go home.

 

Comfort Hold:  A secure, hugging hold that can be used with your child to make them feel safe and calm during medical procedures.

 

Contractures: Tightening of the skin of newly healed areas that may restrict movement of joints.

 

Donor Site: The area of the body where skin is taken and used to cover a burn injury.

 

Dressings: Medications and bandages used to cover healing areas.

 

Dri-Fit: Tight fitting, microfiber clothing that pulls moisture away from the skin. May be used to provide compression over scarring when custom pressure garments are not used.

 

Feeding Tube: A tube placed through the nose into the stomach to give nutrition, fluids, or medicine. May also be called a nasogastric tube or “ng tube.”

 

Functional Loss: The inability to perform an activity that a child could do before injury.

 

Hair Follicles: The base of a hair in the skin. These are often damaged by burns.

 

Hypertrophic scar: A thick, wide and often raised scar that develops within the original wound site.

 

Intravenous: Given through a vein.

 

Keloid: A lumpy or rigid scar that extends beyond the original wound.

 

Pliability: Measurement of firmness and stretchability of scar

 

Pressure Garment: A tight fitting piece of clothing, possibly custom fit to patient, which provides prolonged compression in an effort to flatten scar tissue.

 

Range of Motion: The extent of movement of a joint. Stretching to achieve full range of motion is an important part of recovery.

 

Regulating Body Temperature: The body’s ability to maintain a normal temperature

 

Remodel Scar Tissue: To re-align fibers of scar tissue to flatten and soften scar.

 

Scar: An area of new skin that may look or feel different from the skin that was not hurt.

 

Scar Management: The process to help scars heal well and stay soft and flat enough to let the body move. Scar management may include massage, pressure garments, stretching and exercising and splinting.

 

Skin Grafting: Surgery to remove the injured skin and put new (donor) skin on the burn injured area to assist with healing. The new skin can be the patient’s own (autograft) or come from a human donor (homograft/allograft). This surgery is used to treat deep second-degree and all third-degree burns.

 

Splint: A device made of molded plastic that keeps a body part in one position. A splint is used after surgery or as needed to protect or stretch a part of the body that was burned.

 

Sweat Glands: The gland present in the skin that allows you to sweat as a natural form of temperature regulation.