Burns and their treatment : including dermatitis from high explosives / J.M.H. MacLeod.

  • MacLeod, J. M. H. (John MacLeod Hendrie), 1870-1954.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Burns and their treatment : including dermatitis from high explosives / J.M.H. MacLeod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    uneven on the surface and assume the appearance of a meshwork of small cicatricial bands including smooth islands of protruding scar tissue. The majority of the scars show a tendency to contract for several months and then remain permanent. This contraction, if marked, causes the skin imme- diately around to present a peculiar puckered appearance, and may lead to ectropion, a distortion of the mouth, or other defornuty. In association with burns of this degree both the early shock and the general reaction caused by the absorption of toxic substances may be considerable. In burns of the fourth degree not only the skin is involved to its whole depth but, as a rule, the destruc- tion reaches the subcutaneous tissue. The eschar is brownish-black in colour and completely devitalised, the pain associated with this degree of burning being situated in the inflammatory zone around it, while the eschar itself is quite insensitive owing to the destruc- tion of the nerve terminations. The charred skin is surrounded by a red inflammatory halo, which may be of importance from a medico-legal point of view as it only occurs in burns which have been inflicted during life. In the course of a few days pus appears at the edges and in ten days or a fortnight the eschar gradually separates,, leaving a raw, excavated © wound, the base of which is covered with moist granulations. Where the suppuration has been excessive, purulent absorption may take place, causing the neighbouring glands to become enlarged