Some notes to remember in how to care for an open wound

What is an open wound?

An open wound  is defined as an injury that causes tissues outside the body such as skin to tear. Most minor open wounds can be treated at home.

Currently, there are still some people who apply many folk / oral wound care skills to make the wound heal faster. However, there have been many scientific studies and doctors advise to be careful and stay away from such folk ways because it will bring bad consequences.

Some notes on how to care for an open wound 

  •  Do not clean open wounds immediately after injury

There are many cases after the incident, the patient often thought that the wound was small, shallow only on the skin, so he did not pay much attention to it. The wound dressing process is carried out without the steps of wound cleaning. When the wound is not properly washed, cleaned and disinfected, it will cause even the smallest wound to become infected and become more serious, causing watering / ulceration that makes the healing process drag. longer than normal and cause damage to the patient both physically and mentally.

  • Do not sprinkle antibiotic powder on open wounds

Sprinkle antibiotic powder on open wounds: burns, abrasions, lacerations, infected wounds, etc. is a fairly common wound treatment for many people.
The drug used to sprinkle on the wound is the most common red anti-tuberculosis drug Rifampicin, followed by some other antibiotics such as Clocid (Chloramphenicol) …

There are those who think that doing so is most effective in preventing infection because the drug is delivered most quickly directly to the wound. However, in reality, the act of sprinkling antibiotic powder on an open wound is completely unprofitable, but will still have many potential dangers, specifically as follows:

– Easy to cause allergies, anaphylaxis

When sprinkled with antibiotic powder directly on open wounds, it will irritate the skin, causing local inflammatory reactions, so it is easy to cause allergies and anaphylaxis for the patient. An antibiotic allergy is often very dangerous, even causing rapid death.

– No anti-infective effect

After a few hours of spraying, the antibiotic powder will be dry, the concentration of antibiotics will penetrate into the damaged tissue layers is not much, so it is not meaningful to prevent and fight infection. In many cases, a few days after the antibiotic powder was sprinkled, the wound became swollen, causing a fever. After peeling off the dried antibiotic powder on the outside, the inside contains pus and necrotic tissues.

– Wounds heal long, young skin is slow

After sprinkling antibiotic powder on the wound, a dry crust will form on the outside, creating a physical barrier to prevent the penetration of factors that help protect the body to go to the wound. Antibodies, white blood cells, blood, oral antibiotics, etc. are all hindered, so the body’s ability to protect against inflammation and infection will be greatly limited. This causes the wound to heal slowly, even worse.

–  Do not use hydrogen peroxide to clean open wounds

There are some who believe that disinfecting open wounds with hydrogen peroxide or alcohol can help kill bacteria and protect the victim from unwanted infections. That could also be true. Because hydrogen peroxide is a very powerful oxidant that can help kill anaerobic bacteria (which need less oxygen to grow) and alcohol to help hydrolyze structural proteins and fats. so bacteria.

In addition to killing bacteria, they also destroy white blood cells – platelets – newly healed tissues. That will make the wound take longer to heal, which can be an opportunity for an infection to develop. So using clean water or better, physiological saline is enough to wash your wound.

How to take care of an open wound at home

Step 1: Sanitize, wash your hands thoroughly with soap/sanitizer.

Warm water and soap can be used to wash hands and remove dirt. When hands are dirty, avoid touching the wound because it can lead to infection. If clean water is not available there, it can be done with wet wipes/medical gloves.

 Step 2:  Wash the wound.

Be careful that any pieces of skin that have been peeled off are not severed (if the skin is still sticky). Gently pat the wound dry after rinsing.

Step 3:  Bandage the wound.

If the peeled skin is still attached, put it back in place to cover the wound before applying a bandage. It will help the wound heal. Or you can also use non-stick gauze and tubular elastic bandages to better fix the gauze. Change the dressing 2-3 times a day, or when the dressing is wet/dirty. Carefully remove the old dressing, and gently re-wash the wound if a new dressing is needed.

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