Principles of Rehabilitation in Burn Injuries

Improvement in quality of life and healing the burn injuries are the main targets of optimal novel specialized medical care.With advancements in medicine, the aim of treatment of burn injured patients is not only healing the wound and survival, but also improved quality of life through prevention of deformities and maintaining the patient’s performance and appearance and appropriate return to the society.Specialized rehabilitation service is the supplementary loop in patients’ management and the key to their return to normal lives. Unfortunately, in our country, treatment of this kind of patients is based on acute treatment plans and subsequently the patient with deformities would be neglected forever in the community.Proposing the project of novel rehabilitation medicine:Short term objectives: maintenance and increasing range of motion of joints, minimizing edema and pain, and improvement in muscle strength and endurance in order to prevent articular deformity and decreasing scar tissue.Long term objectives: increase in strength and flexibility of involved muscles in order to increase movement abilities and improvement of flexibility and patient’s performance.The area of rehabilitation medicine consists of:Evaluating the patient and family and offering necessary educations to them, assessing the appropriate position, muscle endurance and strength exercises, balance and stability exercises, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, prevention of deep venous thrombosis and bed sore.In subsequent phases, physical training and speech training and focusing on activities of daily living and splinting to prevent deformities and performance maintenance and movements of the injured extremity and complete treatment of scar tissue and psychological evaluations and consult and also monitoring and treatment of nutritional impairments are recommended.Team-work of rehabilitation group:Rehabilitation of the burn- injured patient needs a team work. Nobody is able to accomplish objectives of rehabilitation of the patient by his/her own.Members of the rehabilitation team consists of burn surgeon, rehabilitation medicine specialist, physiotherapist, physical trainer, speech trainer, orthopedic technician, rehabilitation nurse, psychiatrist, psychological consultant, nutrition specialist, wound care specialist, social worker and the most important, the patient and family.In this article, we will discuss the importance and explain objectives of burn rehabilitation and also, the role and responsibilities of each member based on scientific world protocols.We will focus rehabilitation phases of acute and healing phases and discuss the last novel rehabilitation medicine techniques.