Soft Tissues injuries

Bell Ringer  What is soft tissues injury?

Soft Tissue  Happens to children and adults of all ages  They can be minor, serious or life threatening  Includes:  Scrapes  Bruises  Mild sunburn  large cuts  Stabs  lacerations

Wounds  Soft tissues are layers of skin and the fat and muscles beneath the skins outer layer  Injury to the soft tissues is called a wound  Any time soft tissues is damaged or torn, the body is threatened  Germs and bleeding can occur beneath the skin  Wounds are classified as open or closed

Closed Wounds  Simplest closed wounds is a bruise  Internal bleeding  Blood and other fluids seeps into the surrounding tissues causing area to swell and change colors

What to look for  Signals of internal bleeding  Tender  Swollen  Bruised  Hard areas  Rapid, weak pulse  Skin feels cook or moist  Pale or bluish  Vomiting blood or coughing  Extremity that is blue or pale  confused

When to call  Complains of serve pain or cannot move the body part  You think the force caused serious damage  Body part is blue or pale  Abdomen is tender and distended  Vomiting blood or coughing blood  Shows signals of shock or becomes confused

What to do until help arrives  Bruises do not require special care  For a closed wound, apply ice to the area to decrease the bleeding  Ice will help with swelling and the pain  Apply ice for periods of 20 minutes  Have a barrier between ice and bare skin

Open wounds  The break of the skin  Can be a minor scrape or sever as a deep penetration  The amount of bleeding depends on the location  There are four main types of open wounds  Abrasions  Lacerations  Avulsions  Punctures

Abrasions  Most common type of open wound  Caused by something rubbing against the skin  Don’t bleed much  Dirt and germs are often rubbed into the wound  Usually are painful because it exposes sensitive nerve endings  Types include:  Scrapes  Rug burn  Road rash  Strawberry

Lacerations  A cut in the skin caused by a sharp object  Deep lacerations may cut layers of fat, muscles, damaging nerves and blood vessels  Bleeding may be heavy or none at all  Not always painful because damaged nerves cannot sends pain signals to the brain  Infections can easily occur

Avulsions  A serious soft tissues injury  When a portion of the skin and sometimes other soft tissue is partially or completely torn away  Damages deeper tissues causing significant bleeding  Violent force may case to tear away a body part, known as amputation  Amputation bleeding is easier to control because the tissues close around the vessels at injury site  Twisting or crushing the bleeding may be hard to control

Punctures  Occur when a pointed object such as a nail pierces the skin  Do not bleed much unless blood vessel has been injured  The object carries germs deep into the body and causes infections  If the object remains in the wound it is called an embedded object  A gun shot is an example of a puncture wound

Care for Open wounds  Preventing infections  Controlling bleeding

Prevention infection  Clean the area after controlling the bleeding  Wash the area with soap and water and if possible irrigate with large amount of running water  Do not wash the more serious wounds that require medical attention  Signs of infections  Swollen  Red  Warm  Throbbing  Discharge with pus  Serious infections- may have fever and feel ill

Stitches?  If edges of skin do not fall together  The laceration involves the face  When any wound is.5 inches long  Stitches speed up the healing process  Lessens the chance of infections  Minimize scaring  Major injuries that often require stitches:  Showing bones, muscles  Large or deep wounds  Wounds from human or animal bites

Dressings and Bandages  All wounds need some types of covering to help control bleeding and prevent infections  Dressings are placed directly on the wound to absorb the blood and other fluids  Occlusive dressings is used to close a wound or damage area of the body and prevents it from being exposed to air or water  A bandage is any material that is used to wrap or cover any part of the body  Three types of bandages that are commonly used

Bandages  Adhesive compresses- assorted sizes and consist of a small pad to nonstick gauze on a strip of adhesive tape that is applied to the wound  Bandage compresses- thick gauze dressing attached to a bandage that is tied in place  Roller bandages- made of gauze. Used to wrap body parts and hold a dressing in place

Tourniquet  A tight band placed around an arm or leg to constrict blood vessels in order to stop blood flow to a wound  Should only be used as a last resort in cases of delayed care of where EMS is delayed  Several tourniquets are available or can be can be improvised when needed  Place just about the wound

Burns  Can damage the top layer of skin  Also can damage the skin, layers of fat, muscles and bone  Burns are classified by their depth  The deeper the burn, the more serve it is  Three classifications of burns  Superficial (1 st degree)  Partial thickness (2 nd degree)  Full thickness (3 rd degree)

 Also classified by there source  Heat  Chemical  Electrical  Radiation  Critical burn requires immediate medical attention  Potentially life threatening, disfiguring, and disabling  Difficult to tell if a burn is critical

Superficial burns  Only top layer of skin  Skin becomes red and dry, usually painful  Heals within a week without scaring

Partial thickness  Top layers of skin  Red  Painful  Blisters may open and weep clear fluid  Heals within 3-4 weeks  May scar

Full thickness  Destroys all layers of skin  Some fat layer, muscles, nerves and bones  Skin may be brown or black  Extremely painful  Healing requires medical attention  Scarring is likely

When to call  Trouble breathing  Covering more than one body part or large area  Burns to airway such as moth and nose  Burns to head, neck, hand, feet or genitals  Younger than 5 years old or older than 60  Burns caused by chemical, explosions and electricity

What to do until help arrives  Heat Burns  Check scene for safety  Stop the burning by removing the persons from the source  Check for life threatening conditions  ASAP cool the burn with large amount of cold running water  Cover the burn loosely with sterile dressing  Take steps to minimize shock  DO NOT apply ice or ice water to any burn  DO NOT remove any clothing that is sticking to the burn  DO NOT clean any severe burn  DO NOT break blisters  Do NOT user any ointments

Chemical burns  Flush the burn with large amount of cool running water  If in an eye flush the affected eye with water unit EMS arrives  Have the person remove contaminated clothes if possible  Dry chemicals  Brush off the dry chemical with a gloved hand before flushing with wa ter

Electrical Burns  Never go near the person until you are sure he or she is not still in contact with the power source  Turn off the power at its source and care for any life threatening conditions  Call  Be prepared to perform CPR

Radiation burns  Care for the burn as you would for a thermal burn  Always cool the burn and protect the area from further damages

Severed body part  If a part has been torn or cut off call  Find the body part and wrap it in a sterile gauze or clean material  Put in plastic bag and keep cool by placing it on ice and water mixture  DO not put in dry ice  DO not freeze

Embedded objects  If an object is embedded in a wound do not remove it  Place several dressing around it to keep it from moving  Bandage the dressings in place around the object