[Propane-induced tissue damage: burn or freezing injury?].

Tissue damage due to direct contact of liquid propane with the integument is extremely rare. Only five such cases have been described in the literature. We report the case of a girl who sustained a full-thickness skin necrosis of 14.5 % of her body surface area. There is little agreement about the optimal treatment of these injuries in previous reports. The pathophysiological mechanism suggests a freezing injury. The treatment, however, should be analogous to that of third-degree burns.