Treamtment of Minor Lacerations
If your planning a hike or bike into the backwoods, you’ll have to plan for minor accidents. Inevitably, someone will fall and cut a knee, scalp or elbow. Lacerations can be initially treated in the field, but if it’s a serious one, you should seek treatment from a medical professional. The following is a pre-hospital field dressing technique that you can use until you get help.
Whether cut by an object, or simply falling on the ground, the first order of business is to control bleeding. A little bleeding isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it can help to push out dirt and bacteria. If the bleeding is pulse-like or streaming, in other words spurting out of the wound, then the wound is deep and immediate control of the loss of blood is important. A little bleeding isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it pushes out bacteria and foreign bodies that can cause an infection.
If you can, try to get out the bulk of the dirt and other foreign substances. Then apply direct pressure. You can use a clean cloth with an elastic wrap, or just have the patient hold a bunch of gauze firmly on the wound. This is the main treatment for the control of bleeding in any situation, and just about anywhere on the body.
Resist the temptaton to keep peeking at the wound to see if the bleeding has stopped, as this will only pull off the newly formed clot and make bleeding persist! When the first cloth gets blood soaked, just put another right on top of it and keep holding pressure. If bleeding is not controlled after 15 minutes, head to the ER.
After bleeding has stopped for at least 30 minutes, you can look at the wound and decide whether you need to go to the ER. You basically have about 6-8 hours to get it stitched up, if you need it. How can you tell whether it needs stitches? In short, if the wound wants to stay open, or pop open with simple movement, it needs stitches!
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