Burns : journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
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A rise in the current trend of corrosive substance attacks have been reported in the UK, causing devastating effects on victims. The optimal management of these patients requires the specialist skills of the burn multidisciplinary team (MDT) to address the resulting physical and psychological trauma experienced. However, burn care must commence in the pre-hospital setting. ⋯ These challenges also encompass better education of the public and allied health professionals, as well as planning strategies to reduce the incidence of acid attacks. Prevention is always better than cure. This paper discusses the broadening of the MDT to improve outcomes in acid attacks by exploring the wider roles of the public, media, emergency services, police, legislation and better education.
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Burn injury pain is a significant public health problem. Burn injury treatment has improved tremendously in recent decades. However, an unintended consequence is that a larger number of patients now survive more severe injuries, and face intense pain that is very hard to treat. ⋯ This ligand-specific signaling by different opioids implies that burn injury may reduce the antinociceptive potency of opioids to different degrees, in a drug-specific manner. Indeed, recent findings hint at drug-specific differences in the ability of opioids to manage burn pain early after injury, as well as differences in their ability to prevent or treat the development of chronic and neuropathic pain. Here we review the current state of opioid treatment, as well as new findings that could potentially lead to opioid-based pain management strategies that may be significantly more effective than the current solutions.