About your visit

You have burned your hand. We have talked to you about how to treat your burns. 

When you get home

You must treat your burns daily

When you have burns on your hands, you should treat them daily to maintain flexibility and mobility in your fingers: 

• Wash the burns with perfume-free soap and rinse them thoroughly with water.
• Remove any loose skin with your fingers or a clean pair of scissors.
• Gently dry your hands with a towel or kitchen towel.
• Apply a thin layer of approximately 1 mm of Flamazine® cream to the burns.
• Wrap gauze or a clean piece of fabric around your wrist and secure with a plaster.

Continue treatment until the skin has healed. This will take at least ten days.

Wrap a bag around your hand

The wounds will seep fluid quite a lot in the first few days. Therefore, wrap a freezer bag around your hand and fasten it around your wrist with a plaster to prevent fluid from the wounds and cream from seeping through. Change the bag several times a day during the first couple of days. Later, it will be enough to change the bag once or twice a day.

Only use a bag once, but it does not need to be sterile. The bag also helps keep the burns moist and the scabs soft, which is important for the wounds to heal correctly.

Contact your general practitioner if there are signs of infection

Call your general practitioner or dial 1813 to reach the medical helpline outside your general practitioner’s opening hours if you experience the following symptoms:

• you develop a fever
• you experience a throbbing pain
• your fingers feel cold
• your skin becomes warm or swells
• the wound begin to smell.

The wounds will turn yellowish

While the wounds heal and you are wearing a bag on your hand, you may experience that the wounds and fluid from the wounds turn yellowish, and that the skin gets soft and wrinkly. This is not a sign of infection, and will go away once you have finished treatment.

Take pain-relieving medicine if you are in pain

You should take pain-relieving medicine if you are in pain. Pain-relieving medicine can be bought over the counter. Take only the amount of pain reliever recommended on the package. Contact your general practitioner if you need help managing the pain.  

Check-ups

You should go for a check-up in ________ days at the latest. The physician will check whether the burn has healed or whether you need additional treatment. Book an appointment with:

☐ your general practitioner
☐ your nearest emergency department
☐ Ambulatorie for plastikkirurgi og brandsårsbehandling (Outpatient department of plastic surgery and burns treatment)

Practical precautions

Prevent swelling

To keep your hand from swelling, keep it level with your heart. Rest your arm on a pillow, for example, when you are sitting down.

Move your fingers

Move your fingers as usual, e.g. when eating, drinking or brushing your teeth. Clench and stretch your hand and fingers several times a day. It may hurt to use your fingers, but these exercises are important to keep your skin elastic and to avoid stiff and swollen finger joints.

Avoid nicotine

We recommend that you abstain from nicotine until the burn has healed. Nicotine is found in cigarettes, nicotine gum and nicotine patches. It impairs the healing of wounds.

Avoid direct sunlight

Avoid direct sunlight on scars as long they are red. Scars can stay red for 1-2 years. During this period, the skin is especially at risk of sunburn and can darken. The dark colour will not disappear. We recommend using a sunscreen with a high SPF or wearing clothes that cover the scars.

Worth knowing

Your personal data

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