First Aid for Frostbite - eFirstAidSupplies Blog

What is Frostbite?

Frostbite is a condition where prolonged exposure to the cold causes skin and other bodily tissues to freeze and die. Frostbite commonly affects the nose, fingers and fingertips, toes, earlobes, chin, and cheeks as they are often less protected from and less resistant to the cold. This article will help teach you how to treat frostbite with first aid techniques.

What Does Frostbite Look Like?

The visual effects of frostbite will change depending on the severity/progression of the condition. Frostbite usually starts with patches of red or other discoloration. The skin will then become extremely red, begin to look waxy. After that, it will begin to turn white or black as the frostbite progresses. Swelling and blisters are a result of frostbite after the skin rewarms.

First Aid for Frostbite Treatment

First, seek medical care immediately. If possible, find medical help right away. It is much better to get to a doctor or medical professional as soon as possible. Due to the nature of frostbite affecting your ability to receive pain, it may be hard to distinguish which stage of frostbite you are experiencing, especially if the area affected is somewhere you are unable to see. If you believe or know you are only experiencing frostnip, medical attention is not necessary.

Second, find a way to restore warmth. If you are in a situation where you can warm up the affected area but are not able to keep the affected area from refreezing, do not warm it. This can cause further damage to the affected tissue.

Get out of the cold. Submerge the affected area in warm, not hot, water. Test the temperature of the water with an unaffected part of the body. If a part of your face is frostbitten, use a washcloth with warm water. Do not touch hot objects such as a radiator or put the affected area close to a flame as this could cause burns. Drink warm liquids.

Third, bandage the affected area. Apply sterile dressings, but do not use adhesive ones on the affected areas. Put gauze or clean cotton balls between fingers/toes. Preventing affected areas from rubbing against anything, especially other skin will help prevent further damage. Rubbing the affected area can cause the damaged tissue to become displaced and impossible to restore to its original condition. These should be readily available in any first aid kit

If possible, immobilize the affected area with a splint, or prevent the affected area from moving to the best of your ability. The affected tissue is now extremely fragile and too much movement may damage the cells beyond the point where recovery is possible.

Frostbite Symptoms and Complications

The symptoms of frostbite will be generally ordered from earliest to latest signs:

Patches of red or other form of discoloration (depending on the original complexion) on the skin
A burning sensation in the affected area
Numbness
Muscle or joint stiffness
Stiffness of the skin, or waxy-looking skin
More severe changes in skin color (black, white, blue)
Loss of nails

Once the skin begins to take on the later signs of frostbite, the following symptoms become much more likely:

Infection
Tetanus
Gangrene (decay of tissue resulting from interruption of blood flow)

Stages of Frostbite

There are three stages of frostbite:

Frostnip – This stage will not cause any significant damage to the body and should be recognized as a warning sign to prevent frostbite from progressing.
- The symptoms include numbness and some pain and tingling as the skin warms back up.
Superficial Frostbite – This is the stage where medical attention becomes necessary. Superficial frostbite is when the upper layers of the skin have become affected, but the lower layers have not. A medical professional can address and treat superficial frostbite without lasting damage. If treated in the same way as frostnip however, the skin may become permanently discolored, and painful, fluid-filled blisters will appear.
- The symptoms of this stage include the same numbness as before, but with changes in skin color beginning to appear.
Deep Frostbite – This is the most severe stage and affects all layers of the skin and may also affect other tissues below the skin. A medical professional must treat you at this stage to prevent, or combat any subsequent infections, cases of tetanus, gangrene, and to hopefully prevent the need for amputation.
- The symptoms of deep frostbite are drastic changes in skin color, stiffness of or the inability to move joints or muscles, complete loss of the sensation of touch.

Frostbite Causes

Frostbite is caused by exposing the skin to extreme cold for extended periods of time. This exposure will cause the skin cells to freeze and die. Frostbite can reach areas under the skin, including the dermis, muscle, or tendon tissue if left alone. This makes recovery becomes extremely difficult, and often times amputation is necessary. Similarly, the cell death and lack of blood flow can cause infections such as tetanus or conditions such as gangrene.

Who Is Most at Risk for Frostbite?

The population most in danger of getting frostbite are homeless or impoverished people. Not having access to proper clothing, heat, or shelter puts people in these groups at the highest risk of getting frostbitten. On average, around 700 people in the US experiencing or who are at risk of homelessness are killed by hypothermia annually.

The next populations most at risk are the elderly, or any person suffering from conditions that cause poor blood flow, such as Raynaud’s, or peripheral vascular/artery disease. Conditions that impact the person’s ability to feel pain or reduce sensitivity to touch will also increase the risk of getting frostbite.

Frostbite Risk Factors

Alcohol or drug use may cause a person to be unable to properly assess how cold they are, leading to over exposure to cold temperatures, or the user may fall unconscious outside
Smoking can cause cardiovascular issues such as peripheral vascular/artery disease, or atherosclerosis which limit circulation.
Fear, panic, or mental illness that impairs your judgment can prevent someone from seeking help or realizing they are experiencing frostbite.
Previous frostbite or cold injury will make the affected areas more prone to frostbite.
Being an infant or older adult, both of whom may have a harder time producing and retaining body heat
Being at a high altitude, where there’s less oxygen, causing suboptimal organ function.

How to Prevent Frostbite

Keep as much of your skin covered as possible and dress in several layers of warm clothing. The more layers of clothing you wear the more efficiently heat will be trapped, keeping your body warm for longer while also reducing the amount of energy your body needs to expend to generate that heat. Using handwarmers with gloves or mittens, for instance, is a great solution for people with poor circulation.

Don’t drink alcohol if you plan to be outdoors in cold weather. Alcohol can inhibit your ability to feel pain and the cold and moreover, impairing your cognitive abilities overall. This prevents you from recognizing the early signs of frostbite.

Eat well-balanced meals and stay hydrated. Your body needs food and water in order to generate heat and sustain bodily functions, thereby making it harder for you cells to freeze.

Limit time outdoors in cold, wet, or windy weather. The easiest way to avoid getting frostbite is to simply not expose yourself to the cold.

Wear a hat that fully covers the ears. The ears have very little fat and are very thin, making them very susceptible to the cold. Wearing mittens instead of gloves can be helpful because the individual fingers of gloves provide more surface area to lose heat, while mittens allow the fingers to touch and share heat more evenly. However, either option is better than bare hands. Wear socks that provide insulation from the cold. Much like hands and fingers, toes and feet do not have much fat and generally have poorer circulation than the rest of the body, so keeping them covered and warm is very important.

Keep moving your body to stimulate blood flow. If blood is flowing then heat is being circulated throughout your body, keeping your internal temperature regulated through as much of your body as possible.