The Principles of Wound Management You Should Know – Accidents could happen anywhere and anytime, resulting in different kinds of injuries like wounds. It’s really important and would be really helpful for you and people around you if you can deal with wounds immediately for temporary treatment before you go to a hospital for more proper treatment.
The knowledge and ability to handle wounds would really come in handy and could even save lives if the injuries happen in remote areas where the health facility is not nearby, or when big natural disasters happen where you could wait hours or even days for medical teams to get to the location. For you who are curious about wound treatment, here are the principles of wound management you should know.
Haemostasis
Haemostasis is the term for the process that will stop the bleeding. In most wounds that are not too severe, this process would usually occur spontaneously and naturally. But in some extreme cases like significant injuries or vessels lacerations, to prevent losing of blood, you may need to take some steps to reduce bleeding and aiding haemostasis like giving pressure, elevation, making a tourniquet, or even suturing.
Cleaning the Wound
After you see that the bleeding is not so bad anymore, now you can move to the next step of treating an open wound which is to clean the wound. Wound cleaning is a very important step in reducing the risk of infection where harmful materials could get inside the body through the open wound, and then promoting the healing process.
There are five important aspects of wound cleaning to make sure that you are actually helping the wound to heal faster instead of risking infection. The first aspect of this is disinfection. You need to apply antiseptic to the skin around the wound, but make sure that the antiseptic doesn’t get inside the wound itself.
The second aspect of wound cleaning is to decontaminate by removing any foreign bodies by yourself. After that if possible, you can debride any devitalized tissue. The next aspect is to irrigate the wound using saline. If there’s no obvious and visible contamination, just low pressure irrigation is enough to clean the wound. Make sure you pure the saline slowly and carefully from a sterile container into the wound.
The last aspect of cleaning the wound in the principles of wound management is for high risk wounds or showing signs of infection. Wounds that need antibiotics are usually wounds that are the result of bites (including human bites), heavily soiled wounds, puncture wounds, and open fractures. To apply antibiotics, please follow the guidelines on the package.
Analgesia
The next principle of wound management should be done by medical professionals called analgesia which is the step to do before closing the wound. The most common form of analgesia used is infiltration with local anesthetic along with systemic analgesia to be used as an adjunct such as paracetamol.
But if you don’t have any medical professional around and have to do this step yourself, you need to know that 3mg/kg is the maximum level of lidocaine that can be used and the addition of adrenaline is up to 7 mg/kg. You need to remember not to use adrenaline with local anesthetic if you are administering near or in appendages such as fingers.
Skin Closure
After analgesia, the next thing to do is to close the wound. There are four main methods widely used to do this, the first one is the use of skin adhesive strips that are suitable if there is no risk for infection. Another method is using tissue adhesive glue that can be used for small lacerations that have opposable edges.
For any laceration bigger than 5cm, deep dermal wounds, or wounds that are located that are prone to getting wet, tension or flexion, sutures are needed instead of just tissue adhesive glue. And then for some scalp wounds where sutures are not possible, staples are recommended.
Dressing the Wound
After the wound is closed, the next thing to do is to dress the wound to reduce the risks of contamination or infection. For non-infected laceration, the first layer of wound dressing should be non-adherent like a saline-soaked gauze. To attract any wound exudate, that should be followed by applying an absorbent material and then finally the use of soft gauze tape is necessary to secure and keep the dressing stay in place. Those are the principles of wound management, which should be done by medical professionals. BIMC Hospital Kuta is an experienced hospital, established in 1998 with a 1,500 sqm area granting easy access for anyone from all over Bali. If you’re currently in Bali and need immediate medical treatments for your wounds, BIMC Hospital Kuta is the answer, go to https://bimcbali.com/bimc-hospital-kuta for further details. When it comes to wound care at home, please contact BIMC Home Care Services at +62 8194 5427 001
