First aid for frostbite children and adults: the rules of rendering. What should I do if my skin and face are frostbitten?

Article on what is frostbite, what are its severity levels, how to help with cold trauma, and how to prevent it.

The media are talking about global warming, people of the older generation say that winters are not the same. Nevertheless, since November, the doctors in the emergency room receive patients with frostbite of a certain severity every day. Why do cold damage occur? How to prevent them? How to help a person who got frostbite?

ATTENTION: The article has real photos of frostbite!

Types and degrees of frostbite

Frostbite is a type of thermal injury in which exposure to low temperatures damages cells and tissues of any part of the human body until they die.

You can earn frostbite even if the temperature is below zero, if there is dampness and wind in the street.

IMPORTANT: It is not necessary to think that to freeze your nose, fingers or toes is possible only when the outside is freezing at minus 15-20 degrees. Such a trauma can be obtained at plus temperature if the weather is humid and windy.

Trauma has the following development mechanism: under the influence of low temperatures or in the event of adverse weather conditions, small blood vessels, primarily on the protruding parts of the body, spasmodic, blood circulation is disrupted, cells andtissues are deficient in oxygen and nutrients, and as a result they begin to die.

IMPORTANT: If the temperature of the air on the street has dropped to minus 30 degrees, the cells and tissues of the body are already directly damaged by cold. There are also "frost burns" that occur with a short-term human contact with a source of extremely low temperature, for example, liquid nitrogen or dry ice.

The protruding parts of the body are most often frozen, where the blood circulation is worse a priori. These are:

• ears
• nose
• fingers
• toes

Symptoms of frostbite.

Frostbite often occurs in people who:

• are long on the street, with little movement
• wear tight shoes or clothes that squeeze blood vessels
• have problems with immunity due to acute or chronic illness
• are in a state of intoxication
• suffer from diseasescardiovascular and endocrine systems
• have been malnourished for a certain period of time, undershot or overtired
• smoke

Skin lesion with frostbite of varying severity.

Patients with frostbite are treated by doctors - combobiologists. The tactics of treatment depend on the severity of the injury, and four of them stand out.

The most easy is frostbite I degree .This happened almost every person who is not locked in the cold at home. Symptoms of trauma are blushing or reddening of the skin, their hyperemia.

The patient feels tingling, tingling, pain. Sometimes, on the contrary, the damaged part of the body grows numb and loses its sensitivity. Under condition of treatment, and more often without it, within a week recovery comes. At the same time, the skin on the damaged area can be slightly flaky, since its upper layer

If a person has been exposed to severe frost or unfavorable weather conditions for a significant period of time, he may experience frostbite 2nd degree .The damaged area becomes white due to bleeding, loses sensitivity.

When warming the damaged part of the body, the patient experiences pain, his skin burns and itches. After a while on the frostbitten skin there are bubbles. Frostbites of this degree of severity require treatment. Recovery occurs after 10-14 days, scarring, as a rule, the injury does not leave

Frostbite of the hands of the second degree.

Feces of the third degree severity are already characterized by irreversible changes in the damaged tissues - their necrosis. The tissues die within 2-3 weeks, when they completely tear off, the scarring is read. Trauma is accompanied by severe pain

Frostbite of the hands of the third degree.

In severe severity severity, irreversible necrotic changes occur not only in the skin but also in the muscles, joints and bones. The damaged part of the body becomes cyanotic black, and swelling is formed. Skin in the frostbite zone is much colder than on the undisturbed parts of the body.

Leg frostbite of the fourth degree.

IMPORTANT: If a person has been in the cold for a long time, he may have several degrees of severity of frostbite at the same time. At the same time, the body is undercooled, at which the human body temperature drops to 34 degrees and below

VIDEO: Frostbite

Provision of first aid for frostbite:

rules How to provide immediate relief to yourself and others in case of frostbite, everyone should know. Tactics of actions of envy from several factors:

• severity of thermal damage
• of the circumstances of the
• event of the presence or absence of body hypothermia
• presence or absence of concomitant disease and trauma( eg blood loss)
• age of the affected

First aid in frostbite.

In general, the tactic of action should be this: call an ambulance or transport the victim to a health facility. Even if it seems that the degree of skin lesion is minimal, it is better that the injured is examined by the doctor. At this time:

1. It is necessary to eliminate the source of destruction. That is, a low temperature. The best option is to move the victim into heat. If this is not possible, the exposed parts of his body must be closed and wrapped up
2. To help restore blood flow When the victim is already warm, the frost-bitten part of his body gets rid of shoes and clothes. First, it will allow to assess the degree of frostbite. Secondly, nothing will squeeze blood vessels in the damaged limb
3. If on the frostbitten skin there are no blisters, it needs to be warmed up by grinding
4. Skin with frostbites of 2-4 degree not to grind in any case! Also, you can not use warmers, batteries, a warm jet of air from the dryer. Do not apply fats and oils to frostbitten skin. Heating should be gradual. You can use your own breath, a bandage of cotton wool and gauze, a flap of natural cloth. To keep the heat, a layer of oilcloth or rubberized cloth is placed on top of the fabric. With frostbite of the second to fourth degree, the injured hands or feet are fixed with the
5. tire. Infuse the affected person with a warming beverage. It should not be alcohol in any case! Suitable hot tea, broth, any warm food
6. Give the victim a vasodilating medicine. In any automotive medicine cabinet or ladies' cosmetic bag, usually there is a but-spa. Aspirin with analgin( if they are not allergic) is also good.

First aid tactics depend on the degree of frostbite.

IMPORTANT: Contrary to popular belief, grinding frost-bitten skin with snow is absolutely impossible. There is a risk of even more traumatizing it, and also bringing an infection.

First aid for frostbite skin

A doctor's visit predetermines the further treatment of frostbite. With cold injuries 1-2 degrees the patient is often released home, at 3-4 degrees hospitalized without fail.

1. After warming the patient with frostbite of the first degree, damaged parts of the skin are ground with boric alcohol. During the treatment period, for 7-10 days, he can be assigned electric bathes, ultraviolet or UHF therapy in the physiotherapy room of the polyclinic. At home, the auxiliary folk remedies
2. can be used. The blisters that appear with a second degree heat injury must be disinfected. The skin is treated with ethyl( medical) alcohol. After the doctor gently opens the blisters, removes the dead tissue. On the frost-bitten zones a dressing with alcohol is applied. The patient wears it for about 10 days. At this time, he must drink antibiotics or take a course of injections with them. After him the same physiotherapy is shown as with the first degree of frostbite
3. Necrotomy and necroectomy is a surgical procedure, shown to a patient with a third degree of severity of frostbite. About a week after receiving the injury, the doctor cuts freezed skin areas, puts on a bandage, two weeks after that, he removes dead tissue. Then they wait for the processes of scarring and epithelization to take place, promote them physiological methods
4. When frostbite of the limbs of the fourth degree doctors often have to make amputation. This forced step is the only way to save the life of the injured

Frostbite is treated by a doctor - a konbustiologist.

Help with frostbite of limbs: hands and feet

First aid and treatment at home can only light frostbite of the hands and feet. Otherwise, the consequences can be irreparable. It is necessary to do the following:

1. Make a warm bath. Initially, the water temperature in it should be 20 degrees Celsius. Within 30-40 minutes it is raised to 40 degrees
2. Frozen hand or foot gently and gently massaged, only slightly touching the skin
3. If you use a heating pad, it is placed near frostbitten areas, not directly on them, and through clothes
4. To keep the heat longer, the victim is wrapped up with a blanket
5. Suggest that he drink a sweet warm tea
6. If the pain in the frost-bitten extremity is intense, you can drink analgin or ibuprofen. For the purpose of vasodilatation and blood flow in the hand or leg, the affected person is given the
7. as soon as the sensitivity in the limb returns, it can be slightly rubbed with alcohol and bandaged

Frozen hands and feet can be warmed in a bathtub with warm water.

First aid for frostbite face

Frozen face and cheeks first numb and become pale, and then, when warmed, blush, swell and begin to ache. The help tactic in this case is as follows:

• to the injured provide heat to the
• in order to relieve the pain syndrome, give it no-shpa, analgin or ibuprofen
• if necessary, give it a sedative or cardiac - valerian, corvalol, nitroglycerin
• is applied to the frostbitten skin of Vaseline, ointment beponen or levomecol

Frozen ears.

IMPORTANT: It is impossible to try to improve blood circulation after frostbite of the face, ears or extremities with the reception of strong coffee or alcohol. Vessels will expand too quickly and

may burst. Frostbite of children: first aid to

Children are often overcooled or get frostbitten due to the fact that they can not assess how warmly they are dressed and also do not understand that with their limbs, cheeks, spout orears something is wrong. Even if the frostbitten limbs lose sensitivity and numb, the kids often continue the game, the situation is aggravated.

Children in frost should move more.

Parents should monitor the observance of the rules of layering clothing in the frosty period and so that the kids on the street move as much as possible. If the child's fingers, nose or cheeks are red, this is not necessarily a healthy blush, but the first signs of frostbite and a weighty reason to end the walk.

In the event of frostbite on the legs, hands, or face of the child, the following should be done:

1. remove clothes from the baby, gently rub the skin
2. warm the baby in a warm bath( for half an hour, gradually raising the water temperature from 20 degrees to 38 degrees)
3. put the baby under a warm blanket
4. as necessary, lubricate the frost-bitten areas with a baby-bandage and apply a gauze bandage
5. give the baby a warm tea or milk

IMPORTANT: These measures must be taken only in the case of light, first degree, frostbite in children. More severe cases are treated only by a doctor.

VIDEO: First aid for frostbite. Emergency aid "Doctor Komarovsky School"

Prevention of frostbite

Like any other trouble, frostbite is easier to prevent than treat in the aftermath.

Preventive measures are simple:

1. It is necessary to dress for the season
2. Winter clothes should not crush, disrupting blood circulation
3. Shoes should also not be cramped. In it you need to put the insole. The problem of sweating of the feet must be solved
4. Hands must have gloves or mittens with natural insulation and synthetic water-repellent layer
5. Before going out for frost, you can not drink alcohol, as it disrupts the processes of natural thermoregulation of the body.
6. Nicotine causes vasospasm, smoking in the frost is not possible
7. Ringsand earrings made of metal when entering the frost it is recommended to remove
8. . At the first signs of frostbite, stay on the street must be interrupted. Warm up in a warm place will help a cup of tea
9. In the freezing wind it is necessary, as far as possible, to hide the face

VIDEO: Preventing frostbite