How To Dress A Wound?

Posted on Tue, 25 Feb 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 Answered on

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi, I have a general question about dressing the wounded area. My daughter (2.5 yr) recently fell and cut (1' wide 0.5' deep -- did not expose the skull) on the back of her head (skull). We took her to the doctor, he put 2 stitches, and put the dressing and wrapped her head by gauze. This was yesterday. We took her to the doctor for dressing again today for dressing, but the problem it must be etching there because she is pulling the gauze, trying to scratch -- obviously feeling discomfort. We forgot to ask doctor how to do the dressing ourselves... That's what my question is: 1. Whether should we do the dressing ourselves? 2. How to do the dressing? We have some basic things like dettol, gauze, cotton, boroline... Thanks

Answered by Dr. Eric Goldstein (30 minutes later)

Brief Answer: Dressing Detailed Answer: Hello. Thank you for your question. I'm sorry to learn that your daughter suffered a fall. As far as dressing changes, I believe the dressing should be changed at least once per day. This would mean carefully removing the previous days dressing, and cleaning with a small amount of Dettol, perhaps with a cotton ball, once completed, you can take a small amount of Boroline cream, place it on a small 2inch X 2 inch piece of gauze, and place it carefully on the wound, then you can wrap the larger gauze around her head as a means of keeping the one covered. As mentioned earlier, this should be done every day, throughout the duration of treatment you should remain in contact with your doctor. Hope this answers your question, please write back if you have further queries. Wishing your daughter a speedy recovery. Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D