It’s an unfortunate fact of surgery that postop wounds can occur. Doesn’t necessarily mean the patient or the doctor did anything wrong. Even with a high intake of protein before or after surgery to improve wound healing, wounds can still occur. The important thing is that most of the time, it’s all going to be fine.
How to take care of postop wounds
With the separation of skin, a deeper wound becomes visible. Even though the skin separates, the wound isn’t necessarily infected. Maybe inflamed, but not infected. Patients often think the doctor can simply stitch the skin back together. But that that doesn’t allow the underlying wound to heal. If the doctor stitches the overlying skin back together, the wound will fill with fluid and then the wound can become infected.
So better to let the wound heal from the inside out so the skin closes last. While closing, any fluid that collects will be able to drain and again, avoid fluid collection and infection. To assist this process of closing from the inside out, our office employs the time tested, relatively inexpensive, wet to dry dressing change. As the video below demonstrates, a wet to dry dressing change, when done properly, allows the wound to heal, leaving no evidence behind. Even better, it doesn’t require an expensive trip to a “wound clinic.”
The Wet to Dry Dressing Change for Postop Wounds
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Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.
