Three Tips For Treating Serious Cuts And Wounds

Suffering a deep cut can be a painful and stressful problem to experience. While deep cuts are fairly routine, individuals are often unaware of what they should do in response to this type of injury. In particular, there are some basic first aid steps that should always be taken when a deep cut is suffered even if you will be going to an urgent care clinic.

Attempt To Stop The Bleeding

A deep cut can cause you to lose a startling amount of blood in a fairly short time. This makes it important to take steps to slow or stop the bleeding. Ideally, you should do this through the application of pressure. In your first aid kit, you may want to keep a sterilized cloth or bandage that can be used to slow or stop bleeding. Some people may attempt to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, but this should be avoided as it causes the entire limb to lose circulation. If you find that the wound will not stop bleeding after a few minutes, you should seek professional medical treatment as this could indicate that the wound is too severe to heal on its own.  

Gently Clean The Wound

Serious infection is one of the more common complications that can follow a serious wound. This makes thoroughly cleaning the wound an essential step in your recovery. A small amount of rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide will usually be sufficient for cleaning the cut. While you are performing this task, be careful to avoid disturbing the scab that may have formed as this could slow the recovery process and cause bleeding to resume. Throughout your recovery, you should make it a point to clean the wound every few hours so that the risk of infection can be kept as low as possible. After each cleaning session, you should apply clean bandages and gauze. Otherwise, you may simply introduce bacteria to the injury.

Determine Whether Stitches Are Necessary

When a cut is too severe to heal on its own, stitches may be needed. Stitches are able to improve the healing process by keeping the sides of the cut close enough together so that healing can occur. Unfortunately, it can be rather difficult to determine whether stitches will be needed. If you notice that you are able to see bone or fat, this is a strong indication that stitches will be required. Wounds that are more than a centimeter wide may also require stitches to promote healing. By having wounds stitched, you can improve your ability to heal while also reducing the risk of scarring occurring.