TABLE 1

Classification of Burns Based on Depth

Characteristics
Classification Cause Healing
Appearance Sensation Scarring
time

Ultraviolet light,
Dry and red;
Superficial very short flash
blanches with Painful 3 to 6 days None
burn (flame
pressure
exposure)

Blisters; moist, red Unusual;

Superficial Scald (spill or Painful to air
and weeping; potential
partial- splash), short and 7 to 20 days
blanches with pigmentary
thickness burn flash temperature
pressure changes

Blisters (easily
unroofed); wet or
waxy dry; variable Severe
Deep partial- Scald (spill), color (patchy to Perceptive of More than (hypertrophic)
thickness burn flame, oil, grease cheesy white to pressure only 21 days risk of
red); does not contracture
blanch with
pressure

Scald Never (if the

Waxy white to
(immersion), burn affects
leathery gray to
flame, steam, oil, more than 2
Full-thickness charred and black; Deep Very severe risk
grease, percent of
burn dry and inelastic; pressure only of contracture
chemical, high- the total
does not blanch
voltage surface area
with pressure
electricity of the body)

Adapted with permission from Mertens DM, Jenkins ME, Warden GD. Outpatient burn management. Nurs Clin North Am
1997;32:343–64, Clayton MC, Solem LD. No ice, no butter. Advice on management of burns for primary care physicians.
Postgrad Med 1995;97(5):151–5,159–60,165, and Peate WF. Outpatient management of burns. Am Fam Physician
1992;45:1321–30.