Dermabond-wound drainage

[Mommy TeleRN, RN]

Hi guys,

My dear dear husband has had two wrecks in 3 weeks. The first he wasn't injured altho my mini van sure was. 2nd the vehicle wasn't totalled but he did hit his face on the steering wheel.

He was spewing a decent share of blood and went to the ER. He had a laceration through his chin to the other side. The ER doc fixed it up with dermabond. This was on Friday.

Over the weekend he had quite a bit of swelling around the right side of his lips. The wound started oozing some serous fluid. I figured this must be due to the inflammatory stage. The inflammation seems to be getting better and it looks like there is some granulation tissue forming so I think all is well.

BUT..here is my question...the fluid kinda smells bad. I don't know if that means it's infected or not. I've been checking his temp and it's fine. He's been keeping a sterile gauze pad over it and changing it several times a day.

I've read a little more on dermabond and it seems like he can lightly wash the wound. But I can't figure out from my wound care stuff if the smell means infection or not. The drainage seems serous and not purulent.

Should I send him back to the dr to assess for infection? I'm just a lowly student :)

My husband has been to the ER 3x since I started nursing school (1x for a medication rxn and the other 2 for the wrecks) plus he's had inguinal surgery. Lord I gotta become a nurse just to take care of him! LOL

Thanks!

[suzanne4, RN]

He needs to follow up from his doctor. Any more advise than that, we can't give to you.

We are unable to provide medical advice here per the TOS of this website.