Dressing after surgery

The very first dressing is applied immediately after the operation. When discharged from the hospital, the doctor should tell you how to do dressings after surgery in the future. When a person is in a hospital, this is the direct responsibility of doctors, but upon discharge, they will also tell you which antiseptics are best used at home for suture treatment. In specialized rooms at the surgical department, doctors use disinfectants, bandages and wipes.

In the rooms where purulent wounds are bandaged in patients, there are tools that are used to clean them, drain them, and treat them with antiseptics. If the wound is festering, then the dressing after the operation should take place exclusively in the hospital, since in this way the doctor can monitor its condition and, if necessary, prescribe stronger remedies.

Bandaging after surgery at home is possible only if the scar is clean and heals well. If, nevertheless, there is a need to bandage the wound at home for a poorly healing wound, it is necessary to create all conditions for improving the condition.

Preparing for dressing at home

For dressing after surgery at home, you need to choose a suitable place with good lighting, for this a regular stool or table will do. The surface is wiped with water at room temperature, to which bleach and antibacterial soap are added. After that, it is wiped dry with a clean towel and a cloth ironed with an iron is placed on the dried surface. Then the materials that will be useful in the course of work are decomposed in a convenient order:

• disposable gloves;
• sterile cotton and bandage:
• napkins;
• cotton sponges and sticks;
• washed and ironed towel;
• scissors that have previously been sterilized;
• 10% iodine solution;
• alcohol;
• peroxide;
• antiseptics;
• necessary medicines.

All tools and materials must be perfectly clean, and the actions must be carried out with care so that the wound does not get infected.

The speed of scar healing directly depends on the patient's body, that is, if his age does not exceed 30-35 years and there are no serious diseases, it will drag on very quickly. What can not be said about old people with a whole bunch of diseases, in this case, healing can be delayed, and besides, it cannot be said that everything will pass without complications.

As long as the bandage remains wet, dressings must be done daily, or even 2-3 times a day. If the bandage is crumpled or moved from its place, you need to re-dress it. The appearance of painful sensations of any nature may indicate an infection of the wound, so it is necessary to get to the doctor as soon as possible for an examination. At each examination and carrying out any actions, the bandage must be changed to a clean one.

Stages of wound care

Having been discharged from the hospital, the first question arises for a person, how to properly bandage after surgery without causing harm to the wound. It is necessary to process a scar that has not yet healed carefully, and you should not rush at the same time. A person in the course of work will need to carefully examine the wound, treat it and put on a sterile bandage.

The course of manipulations during dressing:

• removal of the existing bandage;
• decontamination of the wound;
• protection of the skin from secretions;
• bandaging;
• strong fixation of the bandage.

When the bandage dries, it cannot be torn off, this can only do harm. Just cut with sterilized scissors. If only the edges are stuck to the skin, then you can pour peroxide on the bandage, and it will soon fall behind itself. When the bandage is removed, it is necessary to ensure that the scab on the seam remains, if it is accidentally damaged, blood may appear and healing will take longer.

When removing the bandage, the skin is held with a spatula, and the skin should not be pulled behind the bandage.

Treatment of the skin around the wound occurs by wiping with a cloth dipped in a warm soapy solution with the addition of ammonia. Processing is carried out in the direction from the end of the wound to the periphery, you need to make sure that water does not get into the wound.

If the skin is rather heavily soiled, then the wound must be covered with a clean napkin or cotton wool, and the skin itself is washed with a brush dipped in soapy water. Then they are dried and treated with an antiseptic. Failure to keep the skin clean around the wound threatens with serious skin diseases.

For seam processing, you can use:

• sodium chloride;
• potassium permanganate;
• brilliant green;
• miramistin.

After that, the seam is covered with gauze soaked in calendula, and a bandage is applied. On the third or seventh day, the seam ceases to be inflamed. On palpation, pain should not be felt, and the skin under the wound should be smooth, without swelling.

How to make a dressing

The patient has fear when it comes time to do the first dressing. Anxiety is caused due to fear of pain, so all manipulations should be carried out slowly and with great care.

The most painful place is in the inguinal and axillary folds, because there are hairs in those places and they dry up to the applied bandage. To make the procedure not so painful, it is necessary to moisten the adhesive edges of the sticker with alcohol or gasoline.

After removing the sticker, the damaged area is processed. Remove the bottom layer of the bandage in length. With one tweezers, the edge of the bandage must be lifted, and with the other, at this time, clamp the gauze ball and hold the skin with it, pulling it in the opposite direction.

In addition, you need to carefully monitor that the tubes inserted during the operation (if any) do not jump out with the dressing material.

Next, you need to examine the wound, the color of the skin around it should not differ much from the color of the general skin, and the injection site, in the absence of complications, remains completely dry without any discharge.

Care with plasters

On the pharmacy shelves there are a large number of different means for the treatment of postoperative wounds. You can make a dressing at home after surgery using special sterile patches. They are a self-adhesive base treated with antiseptics. These patches have the ability to absorb moisture, so the dressings will change less often and the healing of the seam will be much faster.

The patches do not irritate the skin, besides, they are easily torn off, leaving no traces of glue. Thanks to the meshes, the wound will not be clogged, but on the contrary, it can breathe all the time, which will also speed up the healing process.

Consider the types of patches:

• plasters containing colloidal silver are used for infected wounds;
• for clean ones, ordinary ones are suitable, without antiseptics;
• film perforated patches are used for problematic skin;
• a wound that has already healed is enough to cover with a bandage on a film basis.

With the help of the patch, you can quickly and easily close the wound, with the sticky side adhering to the skin. The width must be chosen based on the size of the wound, respectively, for a small one, a patch 4 cm wide is suitable, and for a large seam, a larger size is needed.

Rules for making a patch:

• the gauze base of the patch should be of such a size that the wound closes completely;
• the skin should be completely dry, then the patch will stick well and will not fall off in the near future;
• then you need to bend the ends of the film from the gauze, while you cannot touch the adhesive base, remove the film and press the patch to the body;
• if the patch is much larger than the affected area, it should be cut to avoid wrinkles;
• the aerosol form of the plaster is used exclusively for dry wounds.

To get the right patch, the pharmacist needs to describe the condition of the wound, only in this way he can choose the right option.

Upon completion of all procedures, the tools must be boiled, and the surface where the treatment took place should be disinfected with bleach.