History

The fundamental history in the patient with major burns should be AMPLE:

• A - allergies
• M - medications
• P - past illnesses
• L - last meal
• E - events or environment associated with injury

Obtain as complete a picture as can be done quickly regarding:

• place of injury - enclosed with or without adequate ventilation, battlefield; gives clue to likely associated injuries
• time elapsed from injury
• burn:
  • type of burning agent
  • duration of exposure to burning agent
  • type of clothing worn
  • likely temperature of burning agent e.g. bitumen, recently-boiled water
  • first aid to burn at site i.e. what was put on burn and for how long
• other injuries:
  • penetrating: velocity of projectile; direction of travel in relation to patient; distance from patient
  • blunt: speed of impact; region impacted; for car crashes whether seat-belt worn, ejection from car and likely speed of crash
  • explosions: type of explosion; distance from explosion
• previous history:
  • overall health
  • possibility of non-accidental injury in a child