Cuts and abrasions on the hands: treating minor injuries. Video
You can get a minor injury in your own kitchen, while working in the country, and even in the office. Women are especially likely to injure their hands while cooking or doing household chores. Even a minor injury can cause a lot of trouble if you take it lightly, do not treat it in time, and allow infection to get into the wound.
Treatment of minor injuries
The first thing to do if a cut, scrape or abrasion occurs is to flush the wound and stop the bleeding. If foreign bodies (such as a glass shard) get into the wound, carefully remove them.
Rinse with clean cool water, you can use soap. If you have hydrogen peroxide on hand, generously moisten cotton wool, a bandage or a piece of clean cloth with it and apply it to the wound – the peroxide will provide an antiseptic effect, quickly stop the blood and help remove dirt that has got into the wound. Only touch the wound with clean hands!
To stop bleeding, it is usually sufficient to press a cotton swab, piece of bandage, or clean cloth against the wound for 10-15 minutes. If the dressing is saturated with blood, do not remove it, but put a new one over the old one – when removing the old dressing, you can remove the blood clot that forms in the wound, which prevents blood loss. For the same reason, dry dressings cannot be torn off; they must be soaked in water or hydrogen peroxide and carefully removed.
As an antiseptic, you can use not only hydrogen peroxide, but also a variety of disinfectant solutions designed to treat the skin, including the well-known iodine and brilliant green, chlorhexidine or furacilin solutions. Remember that only the edges of the wound and intact skin are treated with alcohol-based solutions and pure alcohol, in extreme cases – superficial shallow wounds. Alcohol solutions in contact with damaged tissues can cause severe burns, disrupting the regeneration process of the skin.
If a child is injured, it is better to treat the damaged skin with water solutions of an antiseptic, since all alcohol solutions cause burning and painful sensations
After the wound has been washed, cleaned, and dried, a bandage should be applied. Small, shallow cuts or scrapes can be left open, but wounds that are often at risk of infection (fingers, palms) should be bandaged to avoid getting dirt. When bandaging a cut, gently pull the edges together, then bandage or apply a germicidal patch.
Regularly lubricate dry, not inflamed wounds with ointments that accelerate healing. The composition of such agents that stimulate tissue regeneration may include vitamins, herbal ingredients, dexpanthenol.
In pharmacies, you can find special dressings that promote faster healing and help cleanse wounds. Such dressings should be used for deep, poorly healing or infected wounds; as a rule, they are not necessary for small and superficial injuries.
Minor injuries usually do not require medical attention, but sometimes home treatment may not be enough.
Medical assistance is needed in the following cases:
- heavy bleeding
- large cut or scratch depth, large abrasion area
- the inability to independently remove dirt that has got into the wound
- animal wound
- the wound was inflicted with a rusty metal object
You should seek help if you are unable to stop the bleeding on your own for more than 15 minutes.
Deep cut or lacerated wounds may require stitching – do not try to heal such injuries on your own, this can lead to infection, the development of inflammation, and after healing, a noticeable ugly scar may form.
If earth or sand gets into the wound and it is not possible to remove them with water or peroxide, and also if the wound is received on rusty metal, concrete, such a serious disease as tetanus may develop. Antiseptic treatment will not help in this case, an urgent administration of tetanus toxoid is necessary, especially if you have never had a tetanus shot or have had it more than ten years ago.
If you have been scratched by a cat or dog, then the probability of infection is very high: on the claws of animals, pathogenic bacteria settle in huge numbers, while not harming their “owner”. Scratches caused by cats are especially dangerous in this case. The consequence of such injuries is often an infectious disease – benign lymphoreticulosis, also known as felinosis or cat scratch disease.
Felinosis often heals on its own, but people with reduced immunity may have complications, including life-threatening ones – osteomyelitis, encephalitis, meningitis
If, despite your best efforts, the wound still becomes infected, seeking medical attention should not be postponed. Suppuration of even a small cut without adequate treatment can go so far that antibiotic therapy and admission to a surgical hospital are required. Self-use of ointments and other drugs with antibiotics is not worth practicing.
Read next: Exercise to Burn Calories