Pressure Ulcers and packing

[HappyJaxRN]

I got my new issue of Nursing Made Incredibly Easy this month and I was very interested in the pressure ulcer article. It said something interesting about the do's and don'ts of packing a wound. It said that if you pack a wound that calls for a wet-to-dry dressing, you should use NS instead of sterile water. Why is that?

[bobnurse]

i think it has to do with the osmolality of the sterile water. it causes a shift of fluid out of the wound into the dressing. This can damage the tissue.