Moist vs dry wound healing

Scar

by donr - 2018-04-23 23:09:31

Don't sweat it.  They ALL look ugly at first.  Keep it from drying out w/ some simple triple antibiotic ointment or some such.  Moist does not necessarily mean water.  AS soon as it seals up & has no cut edges exposed, it has sealed itself & will no longer need the protection, except to keep the skin around it from becoming dried out.

Unless yours was sewn up by a Gynecologist, it will smooth out & become flat & colorless w/ time.   Probably a year or so.

Donr

Actually

by Martine - 2018-04-23 23:16:16

One article I read warned against using an antibiotic ointment.  Apparently it tends to cause allergic reactions and is not really helpful for a wound/incision that is not infected.  They recommend Vaseline. 

I was just curious if any doctor had recommended this, as the literature I read said that moist healing has been proved superior is various studies.  

Was yours bumpy at first?  Mine had a good colour, pink, but looks like it's going to be bumpy

More on scars

by donr - 2018-04-24 01:56:08

Martine has a point.  My experience is based on what I see my MD Daughter do w/ such wounds.  She is an antibiotic user on her patients.  Apparently the trend toward plain vaseline is recent - all the Google articles I read were since 2006, concentrated in 2012 & later.  I found one article that examined the studies perrformed on the question of which way to go - antibiotic or vaseline.  That (those) authors' conclusion is that the jury is still out, since all the studies they found were small sample size & the differences between the two were in the single percentages. 

BUT - every scientific conclusion starts out as anecdotal evidence before it becomes a hypothesis & finally a sound conclusion.  As I see it, the diffrerences are so small in which has the advantage that for the minor surgery, it makes no difference as to what you use  The antibiotics use the same goo as a base as the vaseline, so it appears that the vaseline may well be the major contributor to any protection given to the wound when an antibiotic is involved.   At this point - just use something.

Donr

Scar will go

by LondonAndy - 2018-04-24 03:54:29

As donr says, scars look bad at the start but will slowly disappear.  Once my scar had healed, ie after about 6 weeks, I applied Bio Oil almost every day for the best part of a year, and now the incision is almost invisible.  You have to look very closely to see it.

Bio Oil

by Martine - 2018-04-24 15:57:21

I got some bio oil, and also have some of those silicone sheets left from a prior use.  I was planning to use the silicone sheet in the day, which would have the dual purpose of hiding the scar and bio oil before bed.

Was yours a bit puffy (not infected puffy, just puffy) around 15 days?