Treatment for bad skin grazes

[sogood]

Nay TLL. Maggot wound management is much more relevant. And they can be cheaply obtained or pay for "medical grade" strains.



PS. Anyone lost their appetite for dinner yet?

[foo on patrol]

Nay TLL. Maggot wound management is much more relevant. And they can be cheaply obtained or pay for "medical grade" strains.



PS. Anyone lost their appetite for dinner yet?

Yeah but, you four legged best friend is always there for you and is more than happy, too clean up the gunge and chew the scabs off. Plus you don't need too worry about a wriggler falling off and disappearing on you.

[trailgumby]

Funny how dogs do that. I had a chunk out of my shin courtesy of a cricket-ball-sized rock my front tyre flicked up from the trail one weekend, and my teenage son's girlfriend's dog started licking at it when I went to pick him up from her place.

I read somewhere that their saliva has anti-bacterial properties? True or false?

Edit: did a search and the answer is, soemtimes yes, sometimes no. Saliva has antibacterial properties, but can transmit other infections to the lickee.

[Alex Sniga]

Since I've joined "the club" I went to the hospital first, where they applied two liquds - blue (some sort of irrigator that's not supposed to irrigate brains, it's what it says on the bottle) and a brown (contains iodine). The doctor told me not to shower for 48 hours.
I also popped in to a local chemist and found there a spray elastoplast (antibacterial and waterproof) which supposed to be sprayed on rash to stop infection and probably allow to shower. It creates a thin film that acts as a barrier and gradually disappears in a couple days. I did buy and spray it, but have no idea whether it's good or bad (it did hurt a lot when I was spraying).
Now, after reading the above comments I'm confused though, may be I'll just go to medical center so they can inspect it and may be apply new dressings.

[Parrott]

Funny how dogs do that. I had a chunk out of my shin courtesy of a cricket-ball-sized rock my front tyre flicked up from the trail one weekend, and my teenage son's girlfriend's dog started licking at it when I went to pick him up from her place.

I read somewhere that their saliva has anti-bacterial properties? True or false?

Edit: did a search and the answer is, soemtimes yes, sometimes no. Saliva has antibacterial properties, but can transmit other infections to the lickee.

I used to let my dog lick my wounds and never received an infection. I did hear of a local nurse having a serious wound infection transmitted from her dog recently but can't remeber the details sorry. Wikipedia had this though;


Risks
As with the licking of wounds by people, wound licking by pets carries a risk of infection. Allowing pet cats or dogs to lick open wounds can cause cellulitis[54][55] and septicemia[56][57] due to bacterial infections. Licking of open wounds by dogs could transmit rabies,[58] although this is said by the CDC to be rare.[59] Dog saliva has been reported to complicate the healing of ulcers.[60] Another issue is the possibility of an allergy to proteins in the saliva of pets, such as Fel d 1 in cat allergy and Can f 1 in dog allergy.[61] Cases of serious infection following the licking of wounds by pets include:

A diabetic man who was infected by Pasteurella dagmatis due to the licking of his injured toe by his dog, causing a spinal infection.[62]
A woman recovering from surgery for endometrial cancer suffered from Pasteurella multocida infection causing an abscess after her cat licked the incision.[63]
A woman recovering from knee surgery suffered a persistent infection of the knee with Pasteurella after her dog licked a small wound on her toe.[64]
A dog lick to an Australian woman's minor burn caused septicemia and necrosis due to Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection, resulting in the loss of all her toes, fingers and a leg.[65][66]
C. canimorsus caused acute renal failure due to septicemia in a man whose open hand wound was licked by his dog.[67]
A 68 year old man died from septicemia and necrotizing fasciitis after a wound was licked by his dog.[68]
A blood donor whose cat licked her chapped fingers passed on Pasteurella infection to a 74-year old transfusion recipient.[69]
A seven-week old boy contracted meningitis due to Pasteurella from contact with pet saliva.[70]
A patient with a perforated eardrum developed meningitis after his dog passed on a Pasteurella multicoda infection by licking his ear.[71]

edit; link here

[slowflow]

Alavero or pawpaw cream, either should help reduce scar tissue formation

[wombatK]

I came across this the other week and decided I'll give it a shot if/when I next have to treat road rash. It always takes much longer than 7 days for the pink skin to appear with methods I've used previously.

http://www.aboc.com.au/tips-and-hints/h ... t-roadrash

Anyone know where you can get Mefix from in Sydney ? I've tried asking at pharmacies in my local area - and drew blank stares.

[goneriding]

Coulf Mefix be the same as telfa pads?

[Alex Sniga]

I was unlucky enough to need treatment for skin grazes twice in three weeks - I stumbled upon two things in a chemist - one was liquid bandage (can't remember the brand, but its quite common) and 3M Tegaderm film dressing. I actually quite liked the film dressing - it was basically like synthetic skin. When I fell last time I had everything I needed - first, shaved the area, then desinfected, then put the film. Changed it daily for first couple days, and then left it on until full recovery (on the pack it says you can leave it on up to 7 days). In approx a week after the crash the graze recovered (i.e. had new skin).

One thing I really liked about the film is that it's transparent - you can see what's going on, unlike with lots of other padded bandaid lookalikes. It also doesn't seem to stick to the wound. And because it's thin, like skin - you can slightly touch the wound to check for possible infections - i.e. there is no protection of the pad (downside is if you bump it may hurt).
Also, had some fun showing it to friends (not at a dinner table of course )

[eeksll]

i second tegaderm. There are many variants of it as i have found. The one i found in my national pharmacy is called "allevyn thin conformable healing patch". I found that my grazes ooze quite a fair bit and it forces this to be changed quite often initially, not the 5 days written on the packet, but healing is fast!!! and its very flexible and sticky. The whole thing is made of the same material. My graze is just below my knee (where grazes usually happen) and sticking this stuff on i can still ride and run.

But it is $$$. $20 after 20% off for 3 pieces of 10cm x 10 cm sheets.Can but cut to size and any shape. Can be overlapped.

what i do/did
1) get some alcohol wipes and go crazy
2) shave around the area
3) get some more alcohol wipes and go crazy.
4) wait a while for alcohol to evaporate, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegaderm
5) stick on patch without stretching patch, smooth down starting from the middle out so there are no "bubbles".

Just a second comment on my experience with elastoplast spray on for grazes, hurts like crazy and keeps hurting. Does NOT create a waterproof barrier (can feel sting when in the shower). Stuff still oozes out, so I still need a bandage, it seems pretty useless for grazes.

[frank2112]

Bepanthen cream works for me. It's also what is used after a tattoo is done to help the skin heal.

[stevebaby]

Honey works better than anything else,including prescription antibiotic creams.
Someone I knew had an enormous ulcer on his leg for 5 years which had resisted every antibiotic. He had ben told that he should prepare to have the leg amputated when one of his doctors decided to try an old and proven method,since he was at the stage where he didn't have much to lose. The ulcer healed in 3 months.
There is a lot of evidence to support the use of honey as a wound dressing...

http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2001/nov ... agent.html
http://dermnetnz.org/treatments/honey.html
http://www.insidecosmeceuticals.com/art ... -care.aspx
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC32305/

[CommuRider]

I've been using Solosite (OTC) for my ulcerated wound but it works for grazes too.

[toppity]

Currently have a nice 4" square patch off the hip. I'm 36 hours into using the Solugel (graze and burn gel) and dressing technique. The plan is to replace the dressing after my shower daily. The dressing is a larger padding style dressing with a clear plastic like film on one side that goes against the wound. Came off nicely today after the shower (legs are already shaved), lets see how tomorrow goes. I'll report in a few days time to see how it goes. I'm going to have a spin on the wind trainer tonight and see how that goes as well.

[toppity]

Second day dressing stuck a little to the wound but not too much (perhaps 2cm square). Trained on the wind trainer for just 35minutes. The bruising caused most of the pain I think, not the graze, and after 10 minutes or so that eased as well. I'm going to continue with this method. Racing on the track tomorrow, so I hope I don't come off.

[CommuRider]

Second day dressing stuck a little to the wound but not too much (perhaps 2cm square).

Try to get a non-stick dressing. It makes a whole lot of difference. Can heal better too.

[toppity]

Second day dressing stuck a little to the wound but not too much (perhaps 2cm square).

Try to get a non-stick dressing. It makes a whole lot of difference. Can heal better too.

I check the dressing spec and it's Melolin. It's low adherent.

here is the link http://www.getprice.com.au/MELOLIN-DRES ... 936699.htm

After the fourth day the wound was still oozing, so i decided to leave the last one on and see what happens. The dressing has gone slightly hard. I'll take it off on Saturday (8 days after the injury) to see how it's going. I'm going to try the olive oil method of soaking it off mentioned earlier in the thread. If it's still not 100% (or perhaps 90%) i'm going with the dry it out method and leave it open for a while.

It's not stopping me ride atm so that's the main thing.

[CommuRider]

After the fourth day the wound was still oozing, so i decided to leave the last one on and see what happens. The dressing has gone slightly hard. I'll take it off on Saturday (8 days after the injury) to see how it's going.

If the wound is still oozing, shouldn't you be changing it every day or when the dressing is full of blood etc?

Having gone through recently what you did, I changed the dressings every day, twice a day in the beginning - one in the morning, one before going to sleep. I avoided the waterproof dressings unless showering as they tended to make the wound worse as it wouldn't let it breathe.

My procedure was: take off dressing, use sterilised saline solution to clean wound, use sterilised cotton wool/buds to mop up solution and help clean the wound too, add solosite, then add non-stick dressing (I use the Silver Elastoplast ones). I have been doing this for the last 5 weeks or so. Mine is at the healing stage so am only changing the dressing once a day now. I didn't leave the wound open so it wouldn't be exposed to airborne infection.

It's not stopping me ride atm so that's the main thing.

Neither did it me but boy, the first few days pretty horrible and sore.

[toppity]

eight days in and I peeled the dressing that had been on for 4 days off tonight. The wound is 50% healed. I tore some new skin/scabs that made it bleed a little when removing the dressing, but it seems to be progressing o.k.

I put some more gel on with a fresh dressing after cleaning it up a little. I'll keep this dry and check it again in 2-3 days.