Hello. I sustained a fairly significant, though likely superficial, burn on my chest from boiling water. It didn’t appear too severe initially, so I treated it at home, but by the following day, a large blister had formed and it was quite painful. I visited a walk-in clinic for guidance, and they referred me to A&E, which felt like overkill to me, but I complied. At the hospital, the nurse lanced the blister and proceeded to deroof it, removing all the skin. She explained that since the skin was dead, it needed to be cleared away to allow for new growth. She applied an adhesive bandage and mentioned it would be healed within a few days, at which point I could stop using the dressing. It has now been five days, and the wound is still in bad shape, so I’m scheduling an appointment with my GP. The area seems to have expanded because the skin around where she peeled it keeps curling and flaking off. It remains a large, raw, open wound. I was under the impression that you should leave the blister intact to shield the healing skin underneath. Is what she did standard procedure?
In my opinion, it really depends on the dimensions. The area beneath a blister is sterile, so keeping smaller ones closed can be helpful. That said, in my experience, larger blisters typically either rupture on their own regardless or end up getting worse, which complicates the healing process.