How To Clean An Open Wound Without Methylated Spirit Or Iodine

Cleaning and disinfecting wounds is not as simple as some people think. Different types of wounds need different approaches to achieve healing of the wound. Using the wrong method can delay healing or even make it worse. It can make the big difference between quick recovery and prolong healing time, excess scars, increase pain, increase risk of infection or even more.

Small wounds don't need special treatment. They heal on their own. However, open wounds need special approach. The common approach in Nigeria is to stop bleeding with iodine and clean or disinfect it with rubbing or methylated alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. Nigeria has happily accepted these methods because of the irritation that comes with using these solutions. They feel that the irritation they experience from using it means the solution is killing the microbes in the wound. This is wrong on all fronts. You can read more about that in a previous blog post below.
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The first thing to look out for when treating an open wound is to find out what caused the wound. An open wound caused by a tree should be infected. However, an open wound caused by a sterile surgical blade should not be infected. Such wounds don't need disinfection but just prevent bleeding and cover it. Subsequent dressing may require disinfecting it. For an infected open wound, the first thing to do is to clean and then disinfect the wound. This is how to do it.

Methylated spirits

Procedure For Treating Open Wound

Wash hands with soap and running tap water before the process. Alternatively, use hand gloves. Place the open wound under running tap water. This helps to remove debris and infection. It will hurt a little. Use sterile tweezers to remove debris. Then use diluted soap solution to clean around the wound and not the open wound. For minor bleeding wounds, apply a sterile gauze with pressure for five minutes. The pressure helps to prevent blood from coming out of those tissues around until the blood clots in the mouth of those tissues. Do not use iodine solution. For a major bleeding wound, visit the hospital.

A suitable solution for cleaning and disinfecting open wounds is the use of normal saline. It does not irritate the wound because it mimics the body's own pH level. And it does the job of disinfecting the wound well.

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Apply an antibiotic cream ointment. Cover the open wound with a sterile gauze and bandage. This helps to prevent contamination that can prolong healing time. Change the bandage every 24 hours.

There is controversy surrounding keeping an open wound moist. According to one writer,  exposing an open wound to dry air can cause the wound to form a crust over the epithelial layer, inhibiting the growth of new granular tissue, slowing healing and encouraging more scar formation. Dry air is also believed to contribute to cell death of tissues not yet covered by a protective skin layer.

What the above paragraph is suggesting is that keeping the wound moist prevents early formation of scar that will hinder the full healing of the wound. That is if the wound is a little bit deep, the early scar formation from a dry wound will form on time and prevent new tissue to form to the top of the flesh before scar formation. That sounds right. However, keeping it dry makes the scar to form on time, reducing the healing time. This will make the  spot to have a scar that will be obvious in the future.

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