Burns are one of the common injuries of childhood.
Prevention is better than cure.
Most burns are minor in extent and require local treatment only.
All second and third degree burns in children involving over 10% of the body surface should be regarded as major injuries, requiring emergency care.
With adequate resuscitative therapy death during the phase of secondary shock is unusual except for massive burns.
The trend in burn therapy is for early surgical debridement, followed by early restoration of skin cover, in order to by-pass serious complications due to infection and nutritional changes.
It is most important to protect the extensively burned patient from exposure to additional illnesses, and to restore the surface as early as possible.