If you have been injured in an accident or got burned and needed to be represented by Paul Samakow burn injury lawyer then you are likely in a vulnerable position. After an injury or burn, you are very susceptible to getting infected. Wounds are magnets for bacteria and they can grow out of control very quickly. A lot of aftercare is required when you have a wound of any type.
The problem is that not enough people know what to do after an injury and often have side effects that last well beyond what is healthy and normal. They need to make sure to be doing the right things to keep an infection from forming or getting rid of it if they are too late in the prevention stage. In this article, we will go over some of the things you should be doing to avoid getting a wound infected.
1 – Keep the wound clean
There is a bit of a paradox when it comes to keeping your wound clean. It is very important for you to keep it clean and prevent it from getting dirty. However, using antibacterial soap on a wound is not advised.
The idea is that when you use soap it can irritate the wound and end up increasing the chances of it getting infected. You can, and should, use soap and warm water to clean the immediate area around the wound to keep things clean. Use antibacterial soap but make sure not to get any in the wound itself. It will sting so you won’t have any doubts about whether or not you got some in or on the wound by accident.
Instead of using soap, a saline solution is the best thing to use on an open wound. The salt in it disinfects the area, dries it out, and kills off the bacteria much more effectively and gently than antibacterial soap does.
If the wound is dirty with debris then you have to wash that out. Use warm water to flush it out the best you can without aggravating the wound. If it is particularly dirty then you will need to scrape it out with a tool. Make sure that the tool is stainless steel and has been sterilized before you use it or you risk making it infected. You can boil the tool in water to kill any potential germs or wipe it down with alcohol to make sure it is clean.
2 – Cover the wound
Sterile bandages are very important to have handy to cover your wound. This will prevent it from getting dirty and exposed to more bacteria that are around you every day. Once you have cleaned out the wound and sterilized it with saline it can be covered up.
It is very important that the wound be disinfected before covering it since bacteria can thrive in a moist environment that you will create underneath the bandage. Only after you can cover it and know that you aren’t likely to create an environment favorable to bacteria.
If the wound has some discharge then it is a good idea to use layers of gauze for protection. This will absorb any of it and keep the wound protected at the same time. Make sure that the adhesive tape to apply the gauze is not too tight. If there is pressure from a tight bandage then this will slow down the healing process.
3 – The things to avoid
There are a lot of things that can be used to disinfect since there are a number of solutions that kill bacteria. Not all of them should be used on a wound, however. Hydrogen peroxide is a good example. It has been used for a long time to treat wounds but it turns out that you are increasing the risk of infection when using it on a wound. It can still be used in the general area around a wound, however.
Alcohol is also a great sterilizer but if it is applied directly to a wound it can cause a lot of pain and other problems. It should be obvious but also worth stating that cleaning products with antibacterial properties should be avoided since they are not meant to be used on your body but just on surfaces.
It is also widely thought that a wound needs to be exposed to the air to dry out so it will scab up and heal faster. The fact is that it doesn’t so make sure to always keep it covered until it is healed.
