Tag: wound care

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Compounding Skin Care

Can Proper Wound Care Be Healed With Compounding Medication?

Proper wound care is important for a number of reasons. Read how compounding medication can be quite useful.

The right wound care is essential to healing. While different measures are required for different wounds, compounding medication is one of the best ways to care for any kind of wound. It speeds up healing, minimizes the risks of infections, and complications.

Importance of Proper Wound Care

Without proper care, your wounds won’t heal effectively. An open wound is always at a risk of infection that can lead to scarring, amputation, and in some cases, death. Regardless of the type of injury due to which the wound has occurred; surgery, burns, pressure, tissue damage, cancer, proper medication is required to speed up the healing process.

The goal is to increase the flow of blood to the treatment site, manage pain, and eliminate all sorts of infections. It is important to clean the wound thoroughly, apply a topical medication and use a sterile dressing to keep your wounds clean and promote quick healing.

Compounded Medications and Wound Care

Each wound is different and must be evaluated properly. Post the evaluation, a custom treatment plan is put in place to bump up the healing process. In some cases, over-the-counter wound care medications can cause unwanted reactions, leading to further irritation and bruising of the treatment site.

Each wound should be evaluated to create a customized treatment plan to promote healing. Over-the-counter wound care products might be too harsh, leading to burning and irritation of the wounds. Compounded medications on the other hand can be altered to your unique needs, and minimize the damage to the wound site.

With compounding, multiple medications can be combined into a single therapy. For instance, if you are using multiple ointments; an antiseptic, an antibiotic, or a tissue growth stimulator, compounding can combine them into a single medication, making the treatment much easier and more effective. In some cases, anesthetics and antifungal agents can also be added to topical preparations to boost up the healing process and minimize pain.

Compounded creams, ointments, and gels offer unique wound healing benefits. Gels can reduce moisture and promote drying. They offer a protective barrier, aid in healthy tissue growth, and protect your wounds.

The compounding ointments and creams adhere well to the wounds, reduce scarring and promote faster healing. They are designed to remain in the wound longer and enable proper moisture balance. You can also get different bandages that are specifically designed to form a protective cover over the wound.

Reasons to Treat Wound with Compounding

Following are the key reasons why compounding will work in your best interest when it comes to wound healing:

Treats Multiple Wound Types

From spider bites to car crashes to burns to surgeries, wounds come in all shapes and sizes. Compounding medication is equipped to treat all sorts of wounds. It comes in the form of compounded creams, powders, and gels. No two wounds are identical in terms of healing and development of scar tissue. Compounding pharmacists create specialized therapies that address the unique challenges of each wound type. They work in conjunction with other therapies to promote wound healing.

Instead of using different meds for pain relief, increasing blood flow, and controlling infection, you will now be able to use a single treatment for treating all the problems associated with your wounds.

Minimize the Bacterial Load

Infection is one of the primary concerns when treating any kind of wound. If you fail to take proper measures, the bacterial load can delay the healing process and damage skin cells. In extreme cases, the germs can invade wounds, leading to tissue loss that extends beyond the original cut/lesions.

Bacteria can also spur granulation of tissue around the wound site and eventually leave a very unsightly scar. As per research, the most commonly occurring bacteria in wounds is Staphylococcus aureus. Previously, oral antibiotics were prescribed to treat wound infections. However, it came with the risk of antibiotic resistance which can prevent wounds from healing properly.

The customized topical ointment releases antibiotics directly to the germ site, making it more effective and promoting quick healing.

Resolve Pain without Risking Addiction

Pain killers can cause serious addiction problems in certain patients and lead to an overdose in certain cases. Because of the overdose epidemic, a lot of doctors and patients are wary of opioids and other prescription drugs. Topical pain relief offers a safe approach to pain management and offers quick relief.

Drugs that are most commonly used in topical compounded pain relief include Lidocaine, Capsaicin, Clonidine, Dextromethorphan, Ketamine, Ibuprofen, and Naproxen. Each one of the drugs targets different receptors at the wound site. Compounding pharmacists along with physicians can adjust the amounts of pain medication for offering complete relief.

Compounding Addresses Your Unique Concerns

In some patients, wounds heal more slowly than others due to underlying medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Conventional medications are deemed ineffective in this regard. Compounding medication and specialized wound coverings stimulate the tissue growth and cut the healing time short.

Moreover, people struggling with allergies can’t use commercial creams/ointments that help with pain relief. A compounding pharmacist will eliminate the allergy-causing ingredients from the ointment and customize a treatment plan for you. With the custom mixes of wound care medicines, you will get medicines that are safe and effective for your wound.

Conclusion

Burts Rx is a compounding pharmacy that specializes in serving the community with fast, friendly, and professional services. Our staff is well trained and is willing to help you with all sorts of wound and health conditions management. If you are worried about wound healing and wish to learn more about compounding medication, simply get in touch with us today and we will assist you.

Disclaimer: This article is for informative purposes only and shouldn’t be used as a replacement for advice for your health care provider.

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Medical Tips

4 Useful Pediatric Wound Care Tips for Summer Safety

The summer months will soon be upon us, and that means kids will be running around enjoying the sun, sand, surf, and playgrounds, right from sunrise to sunset. Unfortunately, wounds, bumps and bruises come with the turf, but not every scrape warrants professional medical attention. What is most important for parents is knowing when to see the doctor, when to treat at home, and how to use basic pediatric wound care to help kids overcome those scraped knees, cuts, bruises, and sprains.

 

Pediatric Wound Care

Lets face it; kids are clumsy. Scrapes and scratches are bound to happen, especially when they’re out playing in the sun.

Without proper pediatric wound care, these minor injuries may turn into larger issues.

Treating children’s scrapes, cuts and lesions can be simple with these pediatric wound care tips:

  1. Creating a high-quality first-aid kit.
  2. Knowing how to avoid and treat sunburn.
  3. Understanding how to treat scrapes, cuts, gashes, and lesions (and when a doctor is needed).
  4. Knowledge of bee stings, spider bites, and other bug bites.

By the end of this guide, you’ll understand how to treat your child’s common summer injuries, and when it is best to go to do the doctor.

 

1. Create a Solid First-aid Kit

Pediatric wound care knowledge is essential for every parent, especially during the summer months. This knowledge starts with creating a first-aid kit.

Every home should have a first-aid kit, whether there are children present or not. You should also have kits in each of your household vehicles for when you travel.

There are pediatric wound care first-aid kits available for purchase in most local pharmacies and general stores, but you can make your own to meet your unique family needs if that better suits your lifestyle.

Art supply containers and tackle boxes are great and offer a ton of space if you need more supplies than normal.

Your first aid kit contents should include a first-aid manual as well as a list of emergency contact names and phone numbers. Common contents include:

  • Scissors
  • Bandages
  • Tweezers
  • Gauze pads
  • Cold packs
  • Safety pins
  • Medical tape
  • Alcohol wipes
  • Plastic gloves
  • Calamine lotion
  • Antiseptic spray
  • Elastic bandages
  • A CPR mouthpiece
  • Emergency blankets
  • Splinting equipment
  • Antibiotic ointment
  • Fresh bottled water
  • Hydrocortisone cream
  • Sugar tablets (for Diabetics)
  • A flashlight with extra batteries
  • At least three days of non-perishable food (optional)

If you are going on vacation, make sure to place at least one full month of any necessary prescriptions in your kit, too. Even if it’s just for your home, having seven days worth of your children’s medications in your first aid kit is a smart move.

Make modifications based on your family’s unique needs. Do you have a family member with general allergies? Keep extra Benadryl in the kit. Severe allergies? Try to keep extra Epipens on hand as well. Consider any medical condition that may have a special, emergency need and include the necessary materials in your kit.

 

2. Avoid or Treat Sunburn

Do your best to avoid sunburn by wearing and reapplying the proper SPF at all times.

If your children have a newer wound, you need to be particularly cautious and have them wear a SPF of at least 35 at all times to avoid worsening the scarring. After about a year, the scar tissue will tan or burn the same way unscarred skin does.

Cover-ups, beach umbrellas, hats, and strollers with canopies are all great ways to protect your kids and their wounds against the sun while outside as well.

If your child does get a burn, do your best to cool it down as soon as possible. Take a quick jump in the lake, ocean, or pool, but then get out them of the sun right away. Use cool compresses made with ice water on the skin, but never put ice on sunburnt skin.

Use a sunburn cream to protect the skin, but do not use anything with a petroleum base. Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatories (NSAIDs) like Aleve and Ibuprofen are important for pain relief; so is hydration.

If your child has a severe burn with blistering, feels dizzy, seems confused, or has chills or a fever, it may be a sign of severe sunburn side effects. Contact a doctor or head to urgent care or the ER immediately.

 

 

3. Treating Scrapes and Gashes

Pediatric wound care usually involves treatment of scrapes, gashes, and cuts.

Whether your child has a minor knee scrape or a larger gash, start by putting on gloves to protect yourself and to keep any additional debris or bacteria from getting into the wound.

Pediatric wound care can typically be addressed on the spot. Minor scrapes should be cleaned by running them under cool water for a couple of minutes. If you aren’t home or near running water, use antiseptic spray or baby wipes until you can get to a bathroom.

Use a light coating of antibiotic cream to prevent infection and put a bandage on the wound to keep it clean and dry.

Deeper wounds with heavier bleeding take a little more time to treat. Apply pressure to the wound for 10-15 minutes and elevate the wound above the heart, if possible. Once the bleeding stops you can clean it and apply a bandage.

As a general rule, any wound that bleeds freely without showing signs of stopping for more than 10 minutes, or wounds that continuously reopen, should be addressed at urgent care or the ER.

Keep an eye on wounds as they heal. Some clear or slightly yellowish fluid is normal; this is lymph fluid produced by the body to aid in healing.

A thick yellow crust, oozing pus, increased redness or heat, or a bad odor may be signs of infection.

Call your doctor immediately if you’re concerned about your child’s wound healing improperly or if wounds just plain don’t seem to heal, even with proper care.

 

4. Treating Bee Stings and Bug Bites

Bug bites and bee stings aren’t usually a big deal but can definitely be painful and annoying, however it’s important to have this knowledge. If your child has a history of allergic reactions to stings, be sure to administer the appropriate treatment, whether your protocol is to take an allergy medication or use an Epipen. Seek medical attention immediately.

If your child is stung by a bee or wasp, use an index card or something flat to scrape the skin and remove the stinger without squeezing the venom sac. Gently wash the area and apply an ice pack or cold compress to help diffuse the pain.

Over-the-counter antihistamines can help with itching and acetaminophen and ibuprofen are OK for minor pain, provided that they aren’t contraindicated for your child. Always seek medical attention if you are stung in or near the mouth in case of an allergic reaction or swelling that may impact your airways.

For spider bites, wash the area carefully and apply a cook compress. Apply an antibiotic ointment and make sure your child frequently washes his hands. Seek medical attention in an emergency room immediately if you think your child was bitten by a black widow or a brown recluse. Black widows are shiny and have an orange-red hourglass shape on the belly.  Brown recluse spiders are tiny and oval with a shape that looks like a violin on the back.

No matter what the cause of the sting or bite, you should continuously monitor your child for trouble breathing, wheezing, tightness in the chest, tightness in the throat, facial swelling (lips or tongue), fainting, dizziness, vomiting, or nausea. Call 911 immediately if your child develops any of these symptoms.

 

Conclusion

For parents, the summer months are full of fun and adventures, especially with little ones along for the ride.

You can ensure those adventures go off without a hitch by always keeping your first-aid kit stocked and your water bottles full.

Cuts, scrapes, stings, bumps, bruises, and even sprains and breaks happen, but they can be handled with just a little pediatric wound care knowledge.

Be prepared for minor injuries, but more importantly, be mentally prepared to stay calm and collected in the event an injury requires medical treatment.

Categories
Medical Tips

Understanding the Basics of Home Wound Care

There’s nothing like a cut or a healing wound to really interfere with your day—especially if you don’t care for it properly as it heals. Caring for wounds may seem straightforward to the average person, but medical professionals know the truth is often very different: if the wound is serious enough, it almost always requires an individualized treatment plan.

Every patient is different; some may heal faster or slower than others while others may have chronic health conditions that impact the ability to heal at all. Whatever your situation, understanding the basics of home wound care will empower you to treat your wound and identify complications in a much more efficient and suitable manner.

 

What is a Wound?

This may seem like an oversimplification—after all, most patients understand that a wound is an “injury to living tissue,” usually the exterior body itself. That doesn’t tell us much about what a wound really is at a biological level.

Let’s look at what causes wounds:

  • Impact trauma
  • Chemical burns
  • Temperature burns
  • Immunodeficiency disorders
  • Insect bites and/or stings
  • Animal bites or scratches
  • Pressure (e.g. bedsores)
  • Malignant cancers
  • Connective tissue disorders
  • Diabetes and other endocrine disorders
  • Self-injury and/or self-harm
  • Certain medications (e.g. immunosuppressants)

This is far from an exhaustive list, but it does cover a few of the most common reasons for wounds.

The human body is built to heal itself; that’s why your immune system exists in the first place. The moment you cut or injure yourself, it creates an entry point to your bloodstream and internal organs. Any time you have an entry point, you have an increased risk for pathogens to enter the body and cause infection. Your immune system identifies wounds as a potential threat and immediately works to close the wound off and heal it to seal out pathogens. That process occurs in several individual steps.

 

Hemostasis

This is the first (and perhaps most important) step in the body’s natural ability to heal. Hemostasis might sound like a complex word but it simply refers to blood clotting. When you experience a cut or wound that breaks the skin, it will begin to bleed. This process isn’t just a side effect of the wound; it can also flush out debris and bacteria, too.

As soon as your immune system detects the intrusion—often seconds later—it will send out white blood cells and clotting factor (a chemical within the blood that causes blood to clot) to the area. The infusion of chemicals should create a blood clot at the area, sealing it off from the outside world.

Important: A few seconds of bleeding is just fine; heavy or unstoppable wound bleeding or blood or spurting blood can indicate a bleeding disorder, arterial involvement, or the need for stitches. If you experience these symptoms, don’t try to self-treat. Call 911 for spurting or heavy bleeding. Visit your emergency room immediately for bleeding that refuses to stop within 10 minutes.

 

Inflammation

The next step in the natural healing process is inflammation. This is what you see when the area around a wound becomes slightly swollen or reddish in appearance; the body is rushing extra blood loaded with white blood cells, neutrophils, and plasma to the area. These chemicals work in tandem with macrophages and cytokines to tidy up the wound and create new tissue.

Fatally injured tissue dies off and is digested or absorbed into the body, while neutrophils digest any bacteria and release enzymes that increase new cellular activity. Cytokines bind to new cells, telling them to either move to another location or to replicate and grow. This is where new tissue comes from. Macrophages simply provide an extra layer of protection against bacteria.

The end result is the replication of new tissue to replace what was lost in the wound. This is why not all inflammation is necessarily indicative of infection even if it increases pain or warmth around the wound.

Important: Some inflammation is normal; excessive swelling, weeping of greenish pus, extreme warmth with intense pain and/or red streaks traveling away from the wound are not. This usually identifies an infection; seek advice from your doctor if you exhibit these symptoms.

 

Proliferation and Remodeling

These two stages often overlap and occur for the longest period of time. Proliferation itself can take as long as three weeks or more; this is when cells continue to divide rapidly and move around, reforming the area and using a substance called fibrin to create a framework for new tissue within it.

Remodeling strengthens the new tissue framework and “fills it in” continuously.

The latter can take up to two years depending on the severity of the wound; this is why some patients seem to experience a recurrence midway through the healing process. It’s also why it is so important to treat the area with proper home wound care until it’s fully healed.

If all goes well, you exit this state with new, healed tissue (and maybe a small scar).

 

Wound Types

Now that you understand exactly what’s happening inside your wound, you can begin to care for it appropriately. The first step of home wound care is to identify the severity and healability; your physician will usually assess this if it is severe enough. Wounds fall into three categories:

  • Healable – A healable wound is any wound that is expected to eventually heal completely with the right home wound care
  • Chronic – Chronic wounds may or may not eventually heal; their main definition is that the healing process is difficult and prone to repeated failures along the way
  • Non-healable – Non-healable wounds always require medical attention regardless of the severity, as the usual approach is to remove or debride the tissue to prevent necrosis (tissue death) or gangrene

Chronic wounds are very common in certain populations. Diabetic and immunodeficiency ulcers fall under this category. The patient’s own immune system seems to lack the ability to repair these injuries, and they may require a high level of treatment for long-term maintenance or repair instead.

Non-healable wounds are more serious; most are either healable or chronic wounds that for some reason begin to degrade, resulting in gangrene or tissue death. This can be due to infection, immune system problems, or even poor circulation.

 

Home Wound Care Steps

To begin caring for your wound at home, first identify the type of wound and the severity of the damage. You can treat most minor healable wounds at home using the following steps.

1. Clean

If you cut yourself or otherwise create a break in the skin, begin care by rinsing the wound under clean, room-temperature water. If there is bleeding, cool or cold water may help it to clot off more quickly while reducing pain. Do not use harsh soaps, chemicals, or antibacterial soaps in a wound; these are harsh and may damage sensitive tissues.

If you are concerned about infection, a saline wound rinse is ideal. Be cautious with hydrogen peroxide; while it is effective in an emergency, it can also kill healthy tissue, too, and that can hold back healing.

 

2. Pressure

For bleeding that doesn’t stop in the first few seconds, use gauze to apply pressure directly onto the wound. If it bleeds through, add more gauze. Leave the lowest layers in place for at least 10 minutes. Raising the wound above the heart may help. Note that free bleeding is much more of an issue than very slow seeping; some wounds may continue to seep a few drops of blood for 24 hours or more. This isn’t necessarily a problem.

 

3. Coat and Cover

Once the bleeding stops, apply antibacterial salve or cream in a thin coat over the wound. Some preparations contain numbing agents that may reduce pain; these are fine to use sparingly. Cover the wound in a bandage or several layers of gauze. Change it daily or whenever blood and fluids soak through it.

 

Special Situations

There are certain situations where you should not attempt home wound care; a few of of these (like excessive bleeding and signs of infection) have already been mentioned above. Diabetics, anyone with an immunodeficiency disorder, and people with wounds that fall under the following categories should always visit the doctor first, too. If the wound:

  • Gapes or refuse to close
  • Is larger than 1” in length
  • Appears shredded or uneven
  • Is embedded with debris
  • Occurs as a result of rusty metal
  • Occurs after an animal bite

Rinse the wound, cover it with gauze, and then visit your nearest emergency department.

Proper home wound care is such a critical part of healing that it pays to monitor wounds and attend to them regularly even if they aren’t serious. If you have any questions about your wound, or you are experiencing other symptoms that make you unsure of the proper treatment method, call your local pharmacy. Your pharmacist can help you to triage the situation and will make a recommendation for future care.

 

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