Introduction: In the second half of 19th century, the concept of first aid as a duty of everyone to help the one in need has been formed. The first aid givers often had to improvise and use the knowledge and accessories they had in the given moment. An example of such accessory can also be milk which consists of water, lactose, fat, proteins, minerals and many other biologically active substances. Some of these are essential to humans. Current guidelines recommend milk usage with hypoglycaemia and tooth avulsion. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma work is to find out how has the milk usage in first aid been changing: when and in which cases milk usage was recommended and when and in which cases it was abandoned. Methods: We have used a descriptive method of research with historical review of professional literature in Slovene and English language. The textual material has been gathered with the help of databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar, but the emphasis is on the Slovene book literature, especially the one from the second half of 19th century and onwards. Results: The results are classified in the tables that are systematically showing opinions of different authors about the milk usage in first aid and the time span of the literature. A timeline that presents time development of the milk usage in first aid trough the history and special cases of milk usage in urgent situations are also presented. In the past, milk had mostly been used with intoxications and burns, later on this usage was abandoned because of the danger of in milk soluble toxins and because of the aseptic burn wound treatment. Milk usage appeared with hypoglycaemia and tooth avulsion which is recommended also today. Discussion and conclusion: In the past, milk usage was recommended with women after giving birth, in the stroke condition and the use of raw butter with lysol intoxication. The main findings refer to intoxications and burns for which we have found out that they represented the main reasons for milk usage in the past. Milk usage is still recommended in the condition of hypoglycemia and tooth avulsion. It started before approximately fifteen years with Uroš Ahčan's recommendations. The actual Slovene recommendations referring to milk usage in first aid partially differ (intoxications, burn wounds) with the recommendations in foreign literature review.
|