Burn treatment
Information for burn survivors
What is a burn?
According to the World Health Organization, a burn is “an injury to the skin, or other tissues, primarily caused by heat or due to radiation, radioactivity, electricity, friction or contact with chemicals. Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (scalds), hot solids, or fire 1 .”
Different burn types
The skin is composed of three main layers:
- Epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin you can see and touch.
- Dermis, beneath the epidermis. This middle layer makes up about 90% of the skin´s thickness.
- Subcutaneous layer (or hypodermis), the deepest layer of the skin.