Word: waxes
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Advantages claimed for the wax treatment...
...Pain is stopped instantly, probably because the wax protects bared nerve tips from cold and air. It thus eliminates the need for morphine (which causes dopiness, constipation and loss of appetite) which must accompany other treatments until a scablike "eschar" forms over the burn...
...Debridement - the time-consuming cleansing and removal of dead tissues and blisters-is eliminated as the necessary first step in burn therapy. Dr. Pendleton believes that sulfa drugs now make debridement unnecessary and the wax can be safely sprayed on top of oil, dirt, charred clothing, etc. He also thinks that debridement may remove live tissues vitally needed to bridge over the destroyed areas. When burns are treated with wax film (which is washed away each day), a slow, gentle debridement takes place without injury to the growing cells...
...Mass treatment of the wounded is greatly expedited. The first day the wax was used at Mare Island, an orderly treated Dr. Pendleton's group of patients in an hour and a half, while in the next ward five nurses-using other methods-took four hours to fix the dressings on a like number of patients...
...Because bandages are eliminated, wounds can be inspected at any time. In several Mare Island cases bullet and shrapnel wounds were discovered in burned areas which would have been overlooked had they been bandaged. ^ Wax treatment does not produce the leathery crust which forms on burns treated with tannic acid and dyes. These crusts often trap purulent materials and have to be removed painfully...