Treatment of frostbite in an open way (without dressings)

The harsh climatic conditions of the coast of the Tatar Strait make explainable the large number of patients with frostbite who passed under our supervision during the winter of 1935-36 and amounted to 2.8% (26 people) of the total contingent of inpatients. The variety of recommended methods for treating frostbite, on the one hand, and the relatively long recovery period for all of them, on the other hand, made us take a critical approach to the proposed methods of treatment. All currently existing methods are reduced to the treatment of frostbite areas with bandages; and on the locus morbi apply indifferent or slightly disinfecting ointments, or a similar property of a powder, or wipes moistened with slightly disinfecting solutions, for example, Sol. kalii hyperm. 1: 1000. The apparent similarity of the external manifestations of frostbite and burns inspired us with the idea of ​​conducting frostbite therapy in an "open way", which has long occupied a well-deserved place in the treatment of burns.