This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Analgesia

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Established doctrine states that full thickness burns are not painful. However, most full thickness injuries are associated with areas of partial thickness burn and as such, analgesia should always be considered. Equally, escharotomy is painful as it requires extension of the incision into normal skin.

Theoretically, pain could increase the size of burn by stimulation of sympathetic nervous system vasoconstriction.

The recommended analgesic is morphine:

  • administer intravenously
  • give small doses - 0.1 mg/kg
  • reassess pain every 5-10 minutes and repeat dose until pain is controlled
  • for alert patients able to comply, a patient controlled analgesic regimen is recommended if burns are extensive

Entonox can be used as a temporizing measure. Children may be treated with intranasal diamorphine.

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.