What Are Surgical Wounds? Risk Factors And Treatment

What Is A Surgical Wound?

A surgical wound is a cut or incision through the skin that occurs during surgery. It is usually made by a scalpel and known as a surgical wound. Some of the incisions are small while some can be long, as the size of an incision depends on the type of surgery you have undergone. Apart from this, a surgical wound can also be the result of a drain placed at the time of surgery. Surgical wounds are often closed with sutures but sometimes they are left to heal. Surgical Wound Care involves skin cleansing, protecting, and monitoring to prevent infections and enable faster-wound healing.

Risk Factors Of Surgical Wounds

Any surgical procedure causes a surgical wound and the risk factors for developing surgical wound infection involve suffering from any type of medical issue such as diabetes, or poor immune system, etc. The people who smoke, older adults, and people with heavyweight are more prone to have an increased risk of infection. Apart from this, emergency surgeries, abdominal surgeries, and surgeries that take longer than two hours can cause a higher risk of infection.

Symptoms Of Surgical Wound Infection Include:

Surgical wounds are required to be frequently monitored to ensure effective healing. The infections can affect the skin, tissues under the skin or implants, etc. The signs for surgical wound infection include:

1. Erythema

2. Increased pain and redness around the wound

3. Swelling

4. Slower healing

5. Elevated temperature

6. Drainage from the wound etc.

Diagnosis Of Surgical Wound Infection

The surgeons can diagnose any surgical wound infection by simply evaluating the condition of the wound for effective surgical wound healing. It also includes assessing symptoms or taking examinations of the fluid drained from the wound.

Treatment For Surgical Wounds

Surgical wound treatment depends on the location of the wound. The wound care experts generally apply surgical dressings over the wound which needs to be changed regularly. The skin around the wound needs to be kept clean with salt water and soap. You may also need to irrigate the wound with saltwater with the help of a syringe and then spraying it around the wound.

Home Care For Surgical Wounds

If the doctors do not cover your wound again with sutures, you need to take proper care of it at home. It may take a longer time to heal from the bottom to the top. The home care for surgical wounds may include some of the same procedures such as frequent dressing changes and cleaning.

It is important to wash your hands before changing your dressing. You can use an alcohol-based cleanser. Over-the-counter pain medication can help reduce discomfort. Though the patients are discharged from the hospitals before the proper healing of the wound, the patients need to follow home-care instructions for quicker healing.