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Monday, September 10, 2018

Understanding The Importance Of Wound Irrigation

By Melissa Stewart


Accidents can happen at any time, and when they do, they can be overwhelming. But the worse type of accident occurs when there are injuries involved that appear to be life threatening. Open wounds can bring fear into the hearts of those that are dealing with the situation. Wound irrigation would be an asset at this point and can make a difference when healing an injury.

What child has not had the experience of playing in the water when the sprinklers were turned on. Though a child might believe that this summertime fun was tailor-made for them; it really was not. The greater purpose was to have a irrigation system that turned the grass green and kept it healthy.

Wound irrigation occurs when a steady flow of liquid is used to flush out an open wound to remove debris and dead tissue. This method is used to keep a wound properly hydrated, which helps in speeding up the process of healing. One may compare it to irrigating a lawn which helps in producing a nice, healthy lawn.

The liquid pressure used in this process is very important. It has to be at a level where it removes what it needs to remove, while also being gentle enough to not cause any additional damage to the wound. The pressure is often measured per square inch in pounds. If one uses a psi between 5 and 15 it should be good enough to remove the dead flesh. If a wound is chronic, one should use a pressure that can achieve the same results but at the lowest psi if possible.

A great example of when to use this type of irrigation would be an ulcer. They are wounds that are very chronic in nature. Visually they look like open sores that are filled with dead tissue. Performing this method of cleaning will help the ulcer heal quickly.

This popular method does have certain liquids that help the process. Water is a definite component of the procedure because it is regularly accessible. A fluid that has relatively few effects would be that of normal saline. It does not altar the healing process and the osmotic pressure is equal to that of the fluids of the body. Hydrogen peroxide is also a liquid of choice because it not only flushes out debris and dead skin, but it also kills germs and bacteria. Some believe that using this liquid may slow down the process of healing if too much is used.

Before the irrigation takes place, washing the hands is a must. Also make sure to read the doctor's orders. After doing so, it is important to identify the patient with two forms of I. D. Then one can assess the patient's condition and find out if they have any allergies. All equipment should be carefully laid out.

When it comes to cleaning the infected area, the tools usually are made up of syringe or tool similar to that in which a dentist would use when cleansing teeth. Now the size of the syringe depends upon how large the wound is. The streams used to flush the injury can be intermittent or continual. The time it takes to administer the flush depends again upon the size of the wound.




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