Keep the wound dry Pat the wound dry immediately after it gets wet. Do not soak the wound or swim until the sutures have been removed. Only use creams or ointments (emollients) recommended by your doctor. If you sutures are also dressed with bandages, follow the care instructions given by your doctor.
You should avoid contact sports, such as football or hockey, to give your wound the best possible chance to heal. You should not go swimming until your wound has healed and your stitches have been removed. For more information, read How soon can I go swimming after surgery?
Keep your stitches or staples dry and covered with a bandage. Non-absorbable stitches and staples need to be kept dry for 1 to 2 days. Absorbable stitches sometimes need to be kept dry longer. Your doctor or nurse will tell you exactly how long to keep your stitches dry.
Should you keep stitches covered? You'll likely leave the hospital or your provider's office with your stitches already covered, and Dr. Yaakovian recommends leaving them dressed for two to three days. During this time, avoid getting the covering wet.
After 48 hours, surgical wounds can get wet without increasing the risk of infection. After this time, you can get your stitches wet briefly with a light spray (such as in the shower), but they should not be soaked (for example, in the bath). Make sure you pat the area dry afterwards.
Wait until your stitches are out before you go into the pool or pond. Do take showers. If you can, control the spray and protect your wound in a shower. Use a softer setting if you can.
You should keep a wound moist and covered for about five days.
After the first 24 to 48 hours, wash around the cut with clean water 2 times a day. Don't use hydrogen peroxide or alcohol, which can slow healing. You may cover the cut with a thin layer of petroleum jelly, such as Vaseline, and a non-stick bandage. Apply more petroleum jelly and replace the bandage as needed.
Signs it's working: During this stage of healing, you may experience swelling, redness or pain while your wound heals. Your skin may also feel hot to the touch, and you may see a clear liquid around your wound. These are all signs that the inflammatory stage of wound healing is well underway.
This is because your wound should not be soaked in water until it's healed. It could cause the skin to soften and reopen the wound. Guidelines published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) say you can have a shower 48 hours after surgery.
Wound dehiscence is a surgery complication where the incision, a cut made during a surgical procedure, reopens. It is sometimes called wound breakdown, wound disruption, or wound separation. Partial dehiscence means that the edges of an incision have pulled apart in one or more small areas.
Good incision care can help ensure that it heals well and infection doesn't develop. In most cases, a surgical incision heals in about two weeks. More complex surgical incisions will take longer to heal. If you have other medical conditions or are taking certain medications, your healing time may differ.
Stitches can help a wound heal faster and lower the risk of scarring. A doctor can also repair wounds with uneven edges to reduce the size of the opening and any potential scar that may appear.
-Apply Vaseline or Aquaphor healing ointment to the sutured site 3-4x/ day for the next three to four days. The ointment will help the wound heal more quickly and minimize scarring. We prefer Vaseline or Aquaphor to antibiotic ointment due to the increase in allergic reactions to antibiotic ointments such as Neosporin.
The instructions for caring for fresh stitches are fairly universal: keep the sutures clean and dry and avoid getting them wet for at least 48 hours. Doing so, the thinking goes, sharply reduces the rate of infection and improves healing.
Daily, wash the wound with soap and water and pat it dries gently. Contamination-prone areas (such as hands) should be cleaned more often. For 5-7 days, cover regions prone to contamination or re-injury, such as the knees, elbows, hands, or chin. Typically, a simple Band-Aid suffices.
Wounds need to be covered so that they can heal properly. When a wound is left uncovered, the new surface cells that are being created can easily dry out. When these important cells dry out, it tends to slow down the healing process. A wound should be covered using a clean bandage.
Patients are usually recommended to keep the dressing in place and not to shower the area for two days. After two days the patient can shower and change the dressing. The dressing will not need to be changed frequently; only to keep the area clean and dry.
Wash with cool water and soap. Clean as close to the stitches as you can. Do not wash or rub the stitches directly. Dab the site dry with a clean paper towel.
In most cases, the stitches or staples should be removed within about 4 days to two weeks.
It's important to keep sutures clean and dry, especially for the first 24 hours. After 24 hours, you can wet the sutured area gently and quickly, for example in a sink or in the shower. Carefully pat the stitches dry immediately, as moisture can slow down the healing process.
Although stitches and sutures are widely referred to as one and the same, in medical terms they are actually two different things. Sutures are the threads or strands used to close a wound. “Stitches” (stitching) refers to the actual process of closing the wound.
During the first 2 days you may carefully rinse your hair in the shower to remove blood and glass or dirt particles. After 2 days you may shower and shampoo your hair normally. Don't scrub repaired area or let water run on it for a long time.
The stitches in the skin should heal in 5-10 days. The underlying stitches in your muscle layer will take longer to heal. These won't completely heal for 12 weeks. For the stitches that you can see, make sure to watch for any signs of infection.