Burns can be serious business, a sunburn is a good example of a 1st degree burn. The first thing you should do is stay out of the sun as much as possible. Sunburns are characterized by redness, heat, and pain to the epidermis. Sunburns make the skin feel tight, this is because you have lost fluids that are normally in the skin. The intense heat pulls the fluids out of the skin. You also lose fluids from sweating. Rehydration is critical.
If a sunburn produces blistering it is no longer a 1st degree burn. Only 2nd degree burns produce blistering. At this point, the person may become critically ill because of a large fluid volume shift. The intravascular tissue fluids leave the intravascular spaces and migrate to the exterior of the body. Profound hypotension can occur because an intravascular fluid volume deficit now exists. The fluid in the blisters does not belong there, you have much less circulating intravascular volume. These individuals are commonly admitted to intensive care units. They must receive massive intravenous fluid replacement quickly and IV vasopressers to maintain the blood pressure.
Second degree burns have the same physiological effect on the body as acute blood loss, causing hypovolemic shock. Burns also make the person highly suseptible to infection because the protective barrier of the skin is damaged. Infection after any burn is very common.
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