Which protocol is used to manage burns?

• A. The protocol for managing hemorrhage.
• B. The protocol for managing burns.
• C. The protocol for managing spinal motion restriction.
• D. The protocol for managing head injuries.

Answer: (C)

In burns, you use a specific burns management protocol because burns affect airway, breathing, circulation, and skin healing in ways that require targeted steps beyond general trauma care. The burns protocol focuses on protecting the airway and ensuring adequate breathing, then addressing fluid losses and circulation, followed by careful wound care and infection prevention. In practice, that means assessing for airway compromise or inhalation injury and providing oxygen as needed, removing restrictive items around burned areas, cooling the burn with clean running water (not ice), protecting the skin with clean dressings to reduce contamination and heat loss, estimating burn size and depth, initiating appropriate fluid resuscitation for larger burns, managing pain, ensuring tetanus status, and transporting to a facility equipped for burn care. Spinal motion restriction is used when there is a suspected spinal injury to prevent further damage; it isn’t the protocol for burns itself, though immobilization may be part of overall trauma management if a spinal injury is also present.