Wound care health education

Don't sprinkle unknown powder on the wound casually. It doesn't need to be covered tightly 24 hours a day. It doesn't mean that the more frequently you change the dressing, the faster it will heal.

I have been working as a nurse in emergency surgery for almost 7 years, and I have seen too many cases where small wounds that were supposed to heal in 3 days suddenly became infected or even required debridement and suturing because of misunderstandings in nursing care. Last week, I met an aunt who cut her finger while cutting vegetables. She sprinkled a handful of old formula hemostatic powder that she kept at home. The bleeding stopped. Three days later, the area around the wound was completely red. When it came, there was pus under the scab. The pain made her cry when she was cleaning it.

When it comes to whether hemostatic powder can be used, there is currently no completely unified conclusion in the academic community: in emergency situations, such as injuries in the wild without medical conditions, regular medical hemostatic powder can indeed stop bleeding quickly, but it is really not necessary to use it for small daily wounds in ordinary households. ——The powder and wound exudate are mixed together and dry up to form a hard scab, which is equivalent to building an airtight "little house" for bacteria. It looks fine on the outside, but it has already multiplied inside. When you change the dressing and clean it up later, you have to remove the entire hard scab, which is a lot of suffering.

Many people still keep red and purple liquids at home, and even use alcohol to rub them whenever they are injured. There is really no need. The red liquid contains mercury, so it has long been not recommended to be used on broken wounds. After the violet liquid dries, it will form a dark film, and the doctor cannot see the healing of the wound underneath. Alcohol is very irritating, and it feels sour when rubbed on the broken wound. Who knows if you try it, but the key point is that it will also kill the new granulation cells, which will slow down the healing speed. It is enough to prepare iodophor at home, which is less irritating and has sufficient disinfection effect.

After some people were injured, they wrapped themselves in three layers, afraid of getting a little dust or water, and wished they could put a protective cover on the wound. In fact, this also depends on the situation: if it is just a scratch on the elbow or knee, there is very little exudation, and the home environment is clean, it will heal faster if it is disinfected and left to dry. ； If the wound is on the foot or hand, which is frequently moved and easily rubbed, or there is a lot of exudation, just put a thin sterile dressing on it. Don't wrap it too thick and airtight, which will make it stuffy. Oh, by the way, some people say that wounds should never come into contact with water. There are different views on this view now: If it is a clean wound that has almost healed, such as a suture wound that is more than 3 days after surgery, take a quick shower, use a clean cotton swab to absorb the water immediately after washing, and then disinfect it. It is no problem at all. On the contrary, it will be more susceptible to infection than if you don't wash it for ten and a half months and the sweat and dirt around it are accumulated. There was a young man who had a scratch on his knee. He listened to the old man and didn't wash his leg for 10 days. The area around the wound was filled with eczema. It was so itchy that he couldn't sleep at night. Instead, he rubbed off several scabs.

Let’s talk about dressing changes. Many people change dressings two or three times a day, and wipe the wound clean every time. This is called “preventing infection”, but in fact it is equivalent to “forcibly demolishing” new tissue that has just grown. I always tell patients that wound healing is like planting a seedling. You always dig up the soil to see if the roots have grown. Can the seedling grow well? For general clean suture wounds, changing the dressing once every three days is completely sufficient. If it is a superficial abrasion and there is not much exudation, it will be no problem to change the dressing once and wait until it grows back. Only when the exudation is so large that the dressing is soaked, does it need to be replaced in time.

Of course, this does not mean that all small wounds can be treated at home. If you are pricked by a rusty nail, or there is dirt in the wound that cannot be flushed out, or if it is still severely red and swollen after 3 days, or even pus or fever, then don’t hesitate and go to the hospital to see a doctor for treatment. Tetanus should be treated with tetanus, and debridement should be done. Don’t force it.

In fact, wound care really doesn't have to be so fancy. Don't listen to those messy folk remedies. It's better to be less fussy.