Keep Wounds Moist or Dry?

When wounds are kept exposed to the air they will dry and form a scab. The purpose of this scab is to protect the wound from environmental contamination. But, at the same time, scabbing has some disadvantages.

A scab forms a barrier to the generation of new tissue. Studies have shown that under influence of scabbing the regenerative wound healing processes take more time, thus increase the risk on scarring.

• Wounds heal up to 50% faster
• There's less (risk on) infection
• removal of wound dressings is painless and newly formed tissue will remain intact
• less scar tissue thus better cosmetic appearance.

Recently I fell off my bike onto the street. I hit the tiles hard with my nose and my right hand folded double. Apart from a little fracture in my finger I also had three nasty scrapes on the part where the finger bends (closest to the fingernail). As you know there´s relatively soft skin there. The scrapes were rather deep and I just missed whole parts of the skin. I was a bit worried about it healing well.

At first I just let the wounds dry in the air. Later on I saw those big crusts forming and the wounds were healing very slowly. So I bought hydrogel strips (wound plasters from Geoplast) and put these on my wounds. Hydrogel dressings are designed to maintain a moist environment.

After wearing them a day or so the surrounding skin had turned white(ish) and the crusts had dissolved into yellow stuff. This appeared to be an infection but I realized it was just the residue of the dissolved crusts. So no worries, I decided to keep wearing the hydrogel strips.

After a few days I really noticed improvement. The wound surface had become much smaller. The surrounding skin seemed to have grown towards the center (where the crusts previously were). The damaged area was also less deep. So I am really satisfied by using moist inducing wound strips.

I already knew this from reading about it but now I have experienced it myself. From now on I will keep my more severe wounds moist.

If I'm correct hydrogel dressings are roughly the same as hydrocolloid dressings. (hydrocolloid dressings are more suitable for exudating wounds) The hydrogel strips I bought in my local drugstore were only 3 bucks. Maybe you can find them in your area as well.

The past decades many clinical trials and other studies on the effectiveness of honey in wound care have been conducted. This research shows that the moist environment created by honey kills bacteria and hastens wound healing.

Infections are prevented and when already existing, cleared rapidly. Bad wound odor is removed quickly, and swelling and pain are reduced considerably. Indirect result of these enhanced wound healing aspects is minimal scarring.

Prolonged use of topical antibiotics on wounds may cause skin irritation and could possibly worsen a wound. Antibiotic ointments, such as Neosporin, should not be used longer than a few days. Also because of the chance on wound bacteria getting resistant to the antibiotics they are encouraged to use in moderation.

Topical antibiotics work best when they are used only to prevent infection in a fresh wound, not to treat an infection that has already started.