Burn injury: rehabilitation management in 1982.

Coincident with the recent development of more effective acute care of burn injured patients, has been the growth of dynamic, integrated rehabilitative efforts. The physical, emotional, and social problems that face the thermally injured patient must be solved in a constructive, coordinated manner within the matrix of total patient care. Most burns are minor burns, which may be optimally treated on an outpatient basis in a physical medicine department. Hospitalized patients, with more extensive and severe burns, should have the benefit of rehabilitative team efforts immediately after injury. We describe a comprehensive approach to the rehabilitative care of the thermally injured, including the techniques of wound management, positioning, splinting, and exercise at all chronologic phases of care. The psychosocial component of patient care is also discussed and the importance of counseling and relaxation methods addressed. Specialized problems and therapeutic techniques associated with hand burns are explained and appropriate splinting methods are illustrated.