Dermabond-wound drainage

Published Feb 8, 2006

649 Posts

Specializes in Float.

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!