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Orthopedic Wound Care Cleaning Therapy

If you have had any types of injuries or accidents or corrective orthopedic surgeries, it is highly like you have either:

• one or more sutured (stitched) closed wound
• one or more open but superficial healing wound

Sutures are terms for stitches, and are used to bring open wounds together and tie up such that to close the wounds to prevent infection and improve healing rates. These wounds will require careful orthopedic/medical-grade cleaning and care, done regularly and consistently. This is to:

• monitor and treat the wounds to ensure that the wounds do not become infected
• in the event of early/beginning stages of infections, to treat quickly and to quickly flag/refer to medical practitioners

Orthopedic Wound Care Cleaning

Depending on the

• type of wound
• location of wound
• cause of wound
• depth of wound

- your wound care and treatment session may differ.

Of course, for simple and straight-forward wounds, wound cleaning can be done using wound cleaning solutions such as sterile saline solutions or antiseptic wound care solutions (preferred). Wound care needs always to be done in a clean and sterile environment and manner, to prevent any introduction of bacteria into wounds (which will increase risks of infections).

Generally most open wounds that are clean and dry will not require a course of antibiotics unless the doctor notices that the wound may have been contaminated or if they had found any bacterial cultures in lab tests. However, the doctor may order for a course of antibiotics to be safe.

How often should the wound be cleaned after surgery

This depends entirely on the condition of the wound. It can range from once or twice daily wound cleaning, up to 2-4 days between wound cleaning sessions.

• If the wound is generally clean and dry, stable and patient is generally low-risk, then we may order for wound care to be done every 3-7 days (if patient is high risk, we may request for every 1-3 days to ensure wound healing and care isn't compromised)
• If the wound tends to be wet and is located in a very mobile/thin-skin location, then we may request for daily wound care to ensure wound doesn't start to become infected. Once it's stable then we may increase to 2-3 days once.
  
• If the wound is infection, it depends on how good or bad the wound is. May need daily dressing if it's complicated or every 2-3 days, but we need to assess the wound first for 1-3 sessions to be safe.
  

Most wounds take 7-14 days to recover, and stitches are typically removed 2 weeks (14 days) after surgery is done, depending on the wound healing rate. In some cases, there has been patients who had to wait up to 21 days or more before the stitches can be removed.

if you notice a foul smell/oozing...

If you have a wound (stitched or open) that is:

• seems to be oozing (especially pus)
  
• seems to have a foul smell
• seem to feel feverish

There may be a localized infection (perhaps from your wound) that will require immediate treatment. Come to us as soon as you can, or visit your family physician or surgeon immediately. If we are the ones who discover this during session with us, we will immediately refer you to a GP or specialist/surgeon to manage and treat the infection.