Orthopedic traumatologist Dmitry Zubkov told us about how to properly provide first aid for injuries and how to “anoint” it so that it heals faster.
We wash them with a solution of sodium chloride – it dries the wound and does not interfere with its healing. But it is better to refuse iodine and brilliant green. In the USA, studies were carried out on wound-healing drugs on their effect on skin cells, and it turned out that brilliant green and iodine disinfect, but at the same time prevent skin cells from recovering. After them, the cells are “bitten”, they cannot divide normally. Therefore, these drugs slow down wound healing.
With first aid, you can use iodine and brilliant green, but only to treat the edges of the wound so that an infection does not get into it. No need to pour anything inside, we process only the edges. After all, the inside of the wound itself is clean, and the skin was not very clean even before the incident, and after it became even dirtier. Therefore, the surface nearby needs to be protected – we apply the agent along the edges of the wound with a kind of ring. So we use brilliant green and iodine only as a disinfectant. This cannot be cured. You can dry the abrasion with them. But minor abrasions heal easily and so. Most of them don’t need anything extra.
No need to smear them with brilliant green, it will not help. A mosquito, when it bites, launches an anesthetic substance in us so that we do not realize that it has bitten us. And not only the mosquito, but also other insects act in a similar way. And this solution launched into us is acidic. To neutralize it, you need alkali, that is, either a soda solution or grated potatoes. But the most alkaline and most reliable remedy is ammonia. They just dunked it with a finger, anointed it – once and it’s done. Just do not pour or do compress lotions, otherwise burns will remain on the skin.
Cold should be immediately applied to the injury site (and applied further for 15-20 minutes every 1,5-2 hours for up to two days), the injured leg should be raised, optimally at the level of the heart (do not need to be raised too high, otherwise aching pains will begin in the leg ). This is to avoid swelling and improve blood flow from the damaged area. If the hematoma is still formed, then it is better to use a topical agent containing heparin. It is not necessary to make warm compresses or rub the injured area with warming ointments in the first days.
When the ligaments are stretched and a dislocation is suspected, the limb must be immediately fixed at rest: for the hands it is a kerchief through the neck under the elbow, for the legs – a splint made of durable improvised objects (board, tree branch, etc.). If it doesn’t hurt much, try to do without pills. The indication for their use is such pain when you cannot concentrate on daily activities or sleep at night. Topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) available without a prescription (such as Aertal) can relieve pain and reduce swelling.
The most important thing here is cold. First of all, not chemicals, but cooling. The fact is that after a sunburn, the beam continues to destroy the tissue, even when you have already left the sun. Deeper, deeper, deeper. This process continues for the first two days. Therefore, with a sunburn, the first thing is to prevent it from spreading further. This means that you need to cool the surface – for example, take a cold shower. At the second stage, we already use light foams (depanthenol, bepanten, etc.) for a week. Then you can switch to creams.
In no case should you immediately smear the burn with an ordinary cosmetic cream. All of these creams can make things worse in the beginning because they keep you warm. Therefore, in case of sunburn, you do not need to smear the skin with anything greasy.
Why treat them? If only aesthetically they interfere. The fact is that the dissolution of a bruise in a person is a certain indicator of the strength of immunity.
The first step is to prevent swelling. Then if immediately after the injury (knocked on the shoulder), it is necessary to freeze this place so that the vessels narrow and do not bleed. Then the hematoma will shrink and the bruise will be much smaller. Therefore, cooling is the first day every two hours for 15-20 minutes. To exclude the bath! Otherwise, blood will flow even from those vessels from which it should not.
Not earlier than on the third day, you can use blood-dissolving gels-ointments (Liaton, heparin). Because as soon as the vessel is thrombosed, blood does not come from there. And if in the first two days you start smearing it with ointment, then the thrombus will dissolve, and this blood will rush further. Therefore, no earlier than the third day, it is at this time that new vessels begin to germinate. And ointments are needed in order to enhance the action of macrophages, which take away the accumulated spilled blood. The bruise just does not disperse, as if it were being washed off with something. No, macrophage cells resort there (this is the same immunity). And the larger the hematoma, the less chances that they will take it all apart. Accordingly, the higher the immunity, the more macrophages there will be, the faster the bruise will pass. For example, in athletes at their peak, bruises go away very quickly. Accordingly, in older people, bruises can be huge and do not pass for a long time.