Medical: best road rash dressing

MichaelW

What is the best type of dressing to use for a fairly deep road-rash gash to the palm.

Its not mine, my mother tripped and fell but its a similar wound.

The doc has seen it and recomended a wide plaster, smeared with some antiseptic gel (for eye infections), wrapped over with ACE bandage.

I'd prefer to hear answers form medically qualified Cake Eaters.

D4RK1

i would have thought a big gauze pad and micropore tape. Sounds painful, hope your looking afer her

MattC59

Sorry, this is going to be of no use what so ever, as I can't remember what the dressings are called :roll:

But............. you can get them from Boots, but I'm sure any pharmacy hill have generic versions much cheaper.

Actually, i think they're called Hydrocolloid dressings. You can get them in various sizes. Basically they keep the wound moist, allowing it to heal properly. You just slap them on and LEAVE them, don't fiddle !!!

They allow the skin to heal rather than dry out and scar, healing also seems to be quicker too.

MattC59

D4RK1 wrote:

i would have thought a big gauze pad and micropore tape. Sounds painful, hope your looking afer her

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!!

Well, you can try this approach if you like, but the gauze will stick to the wound and will dry it out. Your mother will end up with a wound that forms a hard scab, which on her hand, will crack, bleed and scar.

As previously mentioned, it needs to be kept moist and sterile so that it can heal properly.

sungod

after an off i tried self-treatment with hydrogel/alginate dressing, but a day later i went to a&e as the biggest patch was several times larger than the boots dressings

they used...

3m tegaderm - semi-permeable adhesive film dressing

...gave me a few extra and instructions to change every 4-5 days

as i had quite a few places of varying size, i got to experiment, results...

tegaderm - healed fast, no scabbing, no scarring

boots' hydrogel - these were deeper roadrash, a bit oozy, but healed fast, no scabbing, no scarring

traditional plasters - healed much more slowly, scabbed, scarring

left open - same as traditional plasters

if it's deep, but not too big i'd go for the hydrogel, get some micropore tape to hold down the edges as they don't really stick well on their own

MattC59

tegaderm

I've heard good things about this. It's made by 3M, is available in big dressings and you can order it on line.

kim10

D4RK1 wrote:

i would have thought a big gauze pad and micropore tape. Sounds painful, hope your looking afer her

NO NO NO

Please do not use gauze on road rash or any wound for that matter. It sticks like glue!

As above. A Hydrocolloid dressing would be very good to use. Speak to your local pharmacist to see which one is best as they come in different sizes and thicknesses. Most of them you can leave on for a few days and the replace until the wound has healed.

Anonymous

'Inadine' Iodine gauze then 'Opsite' on top. I've had plenty of (hospital based) experience...

simonaspinall

I used to work for 3M tegaderm - it is awesome!

It depends on how severe the road rash is. If it's quite a large area and really bashed up then it's probably best to get the hydrocolloid (Tegaderm Hydrocolloid dressing) If it's slightly puss-weeping then put the dressing on, leave for about a week and then gently remove. If it's still bad then go and see a doctor.

If it's small then I would recommend base oil + tea tree applied throughout the day so that it is kept moist as Matt recommends. Oil tends to stay on the skin longer than a hydrogel and the active tea tree oil works wonders and cools any sore nerve endings. Just keep applying it - It worked a treat when I had an accident and my face got really scarred and bloody and sore. If your wound is slightly scabby you add some oil to it to soak it then put the hydrocolloid on. You can get the thin dressings for more awkward places such as knees, elbows, face etc.

You can get 3M tegaderm online for not too much - They tend to last up to 7 days but I wouldn't advise bathing with them on. Otherwise a chemists would stock something similar.

The main principal is just to keep it moist and don't disrupt it too much by removing dressings and keep it clean, which is what tea tree can help with. A good film dressing will help keep it moist and protected from the elements. A good tip is too use it in conjunction with a wound contact material which stops the wound touching the dressing and prevents the dressing 'growing' into the wound so when you remove the dressing it re-opens it. (Tegapore, should your chemist stock it)

coombsfh

I have had gravel rash down to the bone on my hip, shoulder and head and got given seaweed dressings that sort of melt into the wound and entrap the gravel still stuck in there. Don't hurt a lot and the only downside is with big wounds like I had they weep tissue fluid a fair bit.

Look for medihoney, algisite or more generally calcium alginate dressings.

Hope your moomy gets better swiftly and without too much discomfort.

Best wishes,


Fred.

jim453

No dressing and tell her to man the f*ck up.

She'll also need to lay off the gin in future if she can't hold it.

Bozman

I came off 4 wks ago and used my arse as a brake ripping through my shorts and leaving my right cheek looking like raw steak.
Inadine wound management dressing with a PFA dressing over the top, changed it everyday and it worked a treat.

priory

having chosen something from the above , like inadine or petroleum gauze under melolin ,or hydrocolloid or tegaderm (in, i think increasing order of cost) I would try to hold it in place with liberal application of scanpore tape, kling bandage might help , then wear magic gloves or white cotton gloves to keep it all clean and protect it from getting rubbed off. 1 to wear and 1 to wash.
inadine is very antiseptic, so that may reduce the chance of infection that would slow down the healing. Some people react to iodine.

TerryJ

DIESELDOG

jim453 wrote:

No dressing and tell her to man the f*ck up.

She'll also need to lay off the gin in future if she can't hold it.

Oh def a HUGE + 1.

After it starts to heal nicely wrap in "Black Nasty" TM and then rip off.

Love n hugs

DD

t.m.h.n.e.t

First: Bathe in TCP (oh the smell of that stuff)
Second: Scream
Third: Laugh and recall being a kid and being scared of the sight of said TCP bottle

APIII

I had to go to hossie in France last year for road rash that had got infected. After getting all his doctor mates in to have a look at my pastey a&se, he gave me the Inadine, something called Flammazine, which was similar in appearance to savlon, and some sterile compresses (Tulle Gras, not sure what the Uk equivalent is) and told me to change the dressing every day. Have to say it worked and it cleared up within a week or so.

fish156

NapoleonD wrote:

'Inadine' Iodine gauze then 'Opsite' on top. I've had plenty of (hospital based) experience...

Similar. Inadine with Mepore on top. I struggle to find the road-rash scars they've healed that well.

MattC59

DIESELDOG wrote:

jim453 wrote:

No dressing and tell her to man the f*ck up.

She'll also need to lay off the gin in future if she can't hold it.

Oh def a HUGE + 1.

After it starts to heal nicely wrap in "Black Nasty" TM and then rip off.

Love n hugs

DD

One can either assume that you've never had gravel rash, or you've got an ar*e like a welders bench ?

I am suitably qualified to assess

jim453

MattC59 wrote:

DIESELDOG wrote:

jim453 wrote:

No dressing and tell her to man the f*ck up.

She'll also need to lay off the gin in future if she can't hold it.

Oh def a HUGE + 1.

After it starts to heal nicely wrap in "Black Nasty" TM and then rip off.

Love n hugs

DD

One can either assume that you've never had gravel rash, or you've got an ar*e like a welders bench ?

I am suitably qualified to assess

You had better not be talking to me.

MattC59

jim453 wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

DIESELDOG wrote:

jim453 wrote:

No dressing and tell her to man the f*ck up.

She'll also need to lay off the gin in future if she can't hold it.

Oh def a HUGE + 1.

After it starts to heal nicely wrap in "Black Nasty" TM and then rip off.

Love n hugs

DD

One can either assume that you've never had gravel rash, or you've got an ar*e like a welders bench ?

I am suitably qualified to assess

You had better not be talking to me.

Hadn't considered that :? but don't worry Jim, I wasn't !

thegreatdivide

When I got knocked down by a dotty granny last month the nurses didn't cover the road rash on my arms, they just cleaned the patches up and left them open to the elements. I was getting vats of anti biotics pumped into me though. Sore as hell (worse than the smashed arm) and it took about four days to start scabbing, but they healed and now I've got pink elbows :shock:

meanredspider

I've been dressing my son's 20" op wound for about 3 months now so count myself as a bit of an expert (I also work for one of the world's biggest wound dressing companies but not in that bit).

+1 for tegaderm (I don't work for 3M) - it's a fabulous dressing - used both on his wound site and his central line site - sticks by far the best.

Then I'd add manuka honey. My son's wound was a bit messy until the "tissue viability nurse" at the hospital recommended this - Holey Moley - what a difference! Wound cleaned up and healed much better. Apparently the sugar is a natural antiseptic, some other ingredient form hydrogen peroxide that keeps the wound clean and finally there's the "manuka effect" (probably something to do with the bees feeding off tea tree flowers).

+1 for keeping the wound moist - that's something the manuka helps with but also my lot have shown that wounds heal best this way.

DIESELDOG

@Matt, I am reliably informed that my arse is rather nice thanks, and gravel rash? Yes, I have suffered, after picking bits of tarmac etc out of me I was fine.

The road not so...

Love n hugs

DD

MattC59

DIESELDOG wrote:

@Matt, I am reliably informed that my ars* is rather nice thanks, and gravel rash? Yes, I have suffered, after picking bits of tarmac etc out of me I was fine.

The road not so...

Love n hugs

DD

I'm pleased to hear that

oh, and that you were ok

fungus_the_muffin_man

I'm a nurse with years of the appropriate knowledge. But I'm off duty right now so unless your willing to pay me a good rate as a private nurse you can bog off.

BarryBonds

i like the words moist and iodine and pain and oh wrong site sorry

dodgerdog

Tinciture of benzoine - works everytime if you want to hear them squeal like a stuck pig :P :shock: