colatownkid
Apr 5, 2008, 2:40 PM
Views: 39880
Registered: Nov 27, 2007
Posts: 512
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Quoted directly from Schimelpfenig and Lindsey's Wilderness First Aid: "Abrasions heal more quickly if treated with ointment and covered with a semiocclusive or occlusive dressing." and also "Semiocclusive ([bandaids]) or occlusive ([second skin]) dressings promote healing by keeping the area moist. Ointments (such as [Neosporin]) serve the same purpose." In plain English, after thoroughly cleaning the wound with water or betadine (but not alcohol or hydrogen peroxide), the wound should either be covered by a bandaid with neosporin or by a product like second skin. After initial application, the dressing should be reapplied as needed. For a bandaid, this means changing it every day or simply reapplying neosporin without the bandaid. For second skin, this means waiting until the second skin falls off as indicated on the bottle. As stated above, however, neosporin is simply vaseline with disinfectants (and now also pain killers) in it. After the wound has been cleaned the first time, simply putting vaseline on it a couple times a day will probably due the trick. (One final note: this only applies to wounds that cover less than 10% of the body. Of course, anything bigger than that and you'll probably need a skin graft anyway.) Edited to add: Hydrogen peroxide and alcohol, while both typically recommended for cleaning wounds, are not appropriate. They both actually cause further damage to the wound. Hydrogen peroxide kills skin cells quite violently and alcohol kills your skin cells along with the bacteria it kills as well. In some instances, alcohol or hydrogen peroxide may be useful if nothing else is available, but "medical science tells us that volume of water is the most important factor in cleaning the wound." Therefore, dumping large amounts of water on the wound is typically the best course of action. (However, alcohol can be used to clean unbroken skin around the wound, if so desired.)
(This post was edited by colatownkid on Apr 5, 2008, 2:51 PM)
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