Citation

King ICC. Burns Trauma 2018; 6: e12.

Affiliation

Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, St George's Hospital, Tooting, London, SW17 0QT UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Institute of Burn Research, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, China, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s41038-018-0114-3

PMID

29744373

PMCID

PMC5930865

Abstract

Burn injuries in children can result in life-long disfigurement. As medical and surgical techniques of burn management improve survival prospects more than ever before, body image adjustment is increasingly a central consideration in the care of burn-injured individuals. An appreciation that both physiological and psychosocial processes underpin such injuries is key to understanding wound healing. Perceptions of idealized body images in Western society challenge children and their families as they grow up with and adapt to disfigurement from burns. Whilst many studies have examined the psychosocial recovery of adults with burn injuries, few have considered the impact on burn-injured children. This paper explores the models of body image and discusses the relevance of these to research and practice in understanding how to manage burns in children.

Language: en

Keywords

Body image; Burns; Children; Paediatric burns; Wound healing