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Background: Optimal management of burns always starts with the first aid. Results of numerous studies carried out in different countries indicated in general a low awareness of first aid of burns irrespective of whether the income of the country was high, middle or low. The aim of the study was to investigate the knowledge in burn first aid in Germany and compare it to an Australian study from 2013., Methods: From January 2016 until August 2017 patients, visitors and medical personnel in the emergency room of two large hospitals in Southern and the Western part of Germany were asked to take part in a paper based multiple-choice survey., Results: Altogether 1229 people took part in the questionnaire, 588 from Bavaria and 641 from North Rhine-Westphalia; 45,2% males and 54.8% females. Their age ranged from 19 to 52 with a mean of 37.2 years. Hereby participants that had taken part in first aid training and people working in health care had significant more correct answers. Overall, only approximately a third of the given answers were correct., Conclusion: Our study suggests that there is room for improvement since only a minority of the German population is familiar with first aid principles dealing with burns. Although more than 40% had taken part in a first aid training, the questioned people gave less correct answers than the Australians in 2013., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Because genital burns are rare, only limited information on treatment guidelines is available in the literature. Vital tissue should be preserved to promote spontaneous healing because reconstruction does not always lead to satisfying results. The aim of this report is to present a general overview of current, prevailing treatment for genital burns and compare this to study authors' experiences. In addition, the article describes an entirely new approach of tissue-preserving bromelain-based enzymatic debridement of genital burn wounds., Methods: This single-center study includes all patients who were treated for severe genital and perineal burn wounds at a burn intensive care unit between December 1995 and December 2016. A review of literature was performed in PubMed covering the years 1990 to 2016., Results: A total of 149 patients were admitted with severe burns or scalding of the genitals or the perineum. As in the majority of cases reported in the current literature, most of these patients were treated conservatively. When there was demarcation of necrotic tissue, tangential excision and skin grafting were performed, and since 2015, 3 patients admitted to this facility have been treated with bromelain-based debridement followed by spontaneous healing. Certain small-scale studies in the literature describe a disproportionate number of surgical interventions., Conclusions: Based on this evidence, study authors support a conservative view of genital burn treatment. Enzymatic debridement allows earlier and more selective debridement, which can improve the aesthetic outcome.