Comprehensive Symptom Navigator™
Your health assistant, simplified.
Disclaimer: This is just an assistant. It should not be used for diagnosing patients without a doctor's discretion.
Symptoms:
Number of Conditions: 1
Burn Wound Infections
Specialty: Infectious Diseases
Category: Skin and Soft-Tissue Infections
Symptoms:
redness and swelling around the burn site; increased pain; foul-smelling discharge; fever; delayed healing; formation of black or brown eschar
Root Cause:
Burn wounds compromise the skin barrier, allowing bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, or fungi to infect the tissue.
How it's Diagnosed: videos
Clinical examination of the wound, wound cultures, blood cultures (if systemic infection is suspected), imaging (to detect deeper infections).
Treatment:
Wound cleaning and debridement, antibiotics (based on culture results), supportive care such as fluid resuscitation, and sometimes surgical intervention.
Medications:
Antibiotics such as piperacillin-tazobactam (broad-spectrum penicillin), vancomycin (glycopeptide antibiotic for MRSA), or fluconazole (antifungal for fungal infections). Anti-inflammatory agents may also be used in severe cases.
Prevalence:
How common the health condition is within a specific population.
Common in patients with severe burns; infection rates are higher in hospitalized burn units.
Risk Factors:
Factors or behaviors that increase the likelihood of developing the condition.
Large burn area, deep burns, delay in wound care, poor hygiene, and comorbidities like diabetes or immunosuppression.
Prognosis:
The expected outcome or course of the condition over time.
Good with prompt treatment, though severe infections can lead to sepsis and mortality.
Complications:
Additional problems or conditions that may arise as a result of the original condition.
Sepsis, multi-organ failure, scar formation, and chronic wound infections.