CARE OF WOUNDS.

Shannon News, 29 September 1922, Page 3

CARE OF WOUNDS.

(By a Surgeon)

Not, very long ago a colleague of

mine scratched his finger in performing an operation. It was a tiny, trifling | scratch that he paid no heed to it, but } continued with his work, and afterwards .forgot all about it..

Suddenly blood-poisoning set in. and in a very few days he was in a most critical condition. Scratches are the most common forms of accident, and scarcely a day passes but what one or other of us falls the victim, though few of us pay any attention to such trivialities. Iguorin,g the humblest scratch is often fraught with considerable danger, for no one can tell what evil germs may be lurking on the flesh at the time the scratch takes place. If these little organism happen to be present they will naturally enter the wound and do very serious damage, while if they are not there the wound will heal up rapidly. It is as well to bear in mind that a

cut or a scratch that bleeds is much

less likely to*result in blood-poisoning that one that simply abrades the skin. The action of the flowing blood is often responsible for washing the germs away from the wound.

If you are quite sure that a cut is quite clean then you may close it with adhesive plaster, but it is always extremely difficult to know when a wound is quite clean.

* No layman’s hands are ever surgically clean, therefore it is always a wise rule never to close a cut until a healthy scab has been formed, for tlnf scab is nature’s own particular way of closing a wound.

What is the best thing to do with a cut or scratch? That is a question I am often being asked, and my reply is: Paint it as .soon as possible with iodine, as this kills any germs that may be there.

Nothing you can put on.a wound will heal it. It is your own good, red blood that heals, and all that can bo done is to wash it to prevent any microbes from interfering with the healing process.