When Do I Need to Get Stitches?

Описание: Accidents happen, and Dr. Karen Calkins said if you have a bad cut, cleaning it out is always a good first step. “You would want to wash it gently, keep it clean, put some type of clean dressing over there. If it’s bleeding maybe a little bit of pressure.”

Sometimes your body needs help to heal. That’s where stitches or sutures come in. “Basically wounds that are kind of gaping in the skin, or if the bleeding won’t stop, are things that really need to be looked at to see if it needs stitches,” said Dr. Calkins.

Stiches are one of the services that can be done at one of the 5 Lee Convenient Care locations. “The nurse will go out and take a look at it, uncover it and see how urgently needs to be brought back and sutured, and then we just bring the patient back and the provider will go in and assess the wound and then they usually use some local numbing medicine, and clean it out really good and suture it up and put a dressing on,” said Dr. Calkins.

Stiches can last anywhere from 5-10 days depending on the location and severity of the injury. “Besides holding those edges of the skin together so it heals well, there’s not a big gap there as it’s healing, it also can help prevent infection down the road because now you’ve cleaned that well and you’ve closed up so you don’t get bacteria in there.” Dr. Calkins said you should be careful using things like hydrogen peroxide, “Because it can be toxic to the tissue, it’s pretty strong if you’re going to use it you want to dilute it out a little bit, but really just some soap and warm water to start until you get here is fine.” To find Lee Convenient Care Locations, visit Leehealth.org.




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