General Medical Question - Urgent - How do I treat this?

Lilybet · 25-06-2007, 06:07 PM

Yesterday I cut myself, probably not too badly compared to others, but the thing is that the skin isn't together. There's about a 2-3mm gap and it's about 1.5 cm long (I know that's not big, but I've never cut like this before and I'm just a bit worried about it). There's still blood in the wound although it's not actually bleeding as such. I have taken good care of it, by using antiseptic wash and a cream and I've changed the dressing just a while ago. So basically I just want to know what the best course of action would be - do I need to use steri-strips or will it just do to use the melolin that I've been using? Thanks ever so much.

Lily
xx

Mrs Sam · 25-06-2007, 06:26 PM

if its already healing inside (like a scab type thing) then its probably a little late to try and steri strip it, unless the edges still come together?

sounds like your doing the best you can though. it'll probably scar since its an open cut but you can use scar reduction treatments in the future if you want.

sam

xxx

Aidee · 26-06-2007, 03:57 AM

Steri Strips, like stitches should be applied within 12 hours of the wound occurring. After that, there is a significantly increased chance of infection being trapped in the wound. So, I would say at this point that it is too late for steri strips.

It sounds like you are doing the right thing keeping it clean and bandaged. Keep up with that and be on the look out for signs of infection.

AD