First Aid For Wounds:
Cleaning and dressing tips

By: Buck Tilton

Human bodies open naturally in a few places, places more often best left closed. You can get into all sorts of trouble by being too open. Same goes for non-natural openings: wounds.

After cleaning small wounds, facial wounds, or scalp wounds, if they gape open, they can be closed with closure strips. If hair gets in the way, it can be carefully clipped short, but it should not be shaved off. Shaving increases the chance for infection. Begin by smearing a line of tincture of benzoin compound, if you have any, along both sides of the wound. Benzoin is an irritant so take care to keep it out of the wound. Let the benzoin dry for about 30 seconds. Benzoin's stickiness will help keep the closure strips in place. Touch the closure strips only on their ends. Apply one to one side of the wound and another to the opposite side. By using the opposing strips as handles, you can pull the wound edges together, pulling the skin as close as possible to where it should lie naturally, but without pulling the wound tightly shut.

Large dirty wounds, wounds caused by animal bites, and wounds that open joint spaces are best left open. They are difficult to clean well enough to prevent infection. Exceptionally dirty wounds should be packed open with sterile gauze to allow them to drain until a physician can be consulted.

Open wounds heal better and faster if they are kept slightly moist. Begin by applying an antibiotic ointment over the closed cut or scrape. Dress the wound with a non-adherent sterile dressing, making sure it completely covers the wound. Dressings that stick to the wound will slow the healing process. Finish with a protective gauze pad which you tape in place or wrap in place with a roll of stretch gauze.

Relatively recent additions to open wound management include micro-thin film dressings such as Tegaderm and Biocclusive. They have special value if you're going to stay in the woods. They allow air to pass through, so they speed healing, and they are waterproof, so they don't wash off, and they are see-through, so you can watch the wound for signs of infection as it heals.

© 1999 Buck Tilton; All Right Reserved