|
A
lot of interesting things come out of large healing wounds, most of
them are normal; some are not. Wound drainage
comes in many forms and some can be alarming at first.
Bleeding - SOME
bleeding is normal, especially during packing changes. There
are lots of new blood capillaries being built in your wound and
those can be disturbed during packing changes. Gushing blood or large clots
are not normal, call your
doctor. There have been cases where an excision went
too close to a larger vein and this can be scary if the vein opens
up during a packing change. Anything more than about a teaspoon of
blood should have a doctor look at it. For large amounts of
blood that aren't stopping, go the the nearest ER. Sutures
bleeding one week after surgery is normal, bleeding after two weeks
is not normal (unless it is from individual stitch holes that are
too tight).
Exudate -
This is the by-product of healing that those going through
open wound healing will start seeing
in the wound at about 5 days post-op. At first
glance, you may think you have an infection since there will
be little gobs of "gunk" in your wound. Exudate can be
white, yellowish, grayish, greenish or light brown. Exudate can
also have a
slight odor, it is normal.
- Strong odor with pain, redness
and swelling usually indicates infection, call your doctor
ASAP.
Exudate is a collection of
dead cells and other materials discarded as your body heals itself.
It needs to be gently cleaned out of the wound twice daily and this is part
of role of packing changes. Exudate can be rinsed out of the
wound bed with a hand-held shower sprayer, just flush the entire
wound out. You may go though periods of very heavy exudate drainage
(lots of healing going on) or minimal exudate drainage (healing
slowing down).
Serous Fluid
- Those with closed wounds should be on the lookout for Serous
fluid, which is yet another interesting wound healing
byproduct that the body creates to help dilute the toxins produced by
bacteria and toxic products being released from dying cells.
In addition, the serous fluid helps to carry plasma proteins
and leukocytes to the wound site. Lastly, the serous fluid
assists in removing bacterial toxins, dead cells, debris,
and other products of inflammation. For those with a closed
incision (sutures), this fluid can build up inside the
surgical site and the drainage can be a large (scary) amount
of yellow/orange fluid. Usually nothing needs to be done
other than to cover the open spot to protect the clothes,
but your surgeon should still be contacted because similar
fluid can come out of the wound in the case of a rare but
more serious wound complication.
Pus - This is
NOT normal. Pus coming from either a closed or open
incision needs immediate attention from a doctor.
This page last updated:
05/24/2008
|
