What is the difference between purulent and suppurative drainage?

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What is the difference between purulent and suppurative drainage?

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

There is no difference.

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Not knowing any official difference, I think of purulent as "stinky" and suppurative as "oozing".

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Thanks!

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Specializes in CWON - Certified Wound and Ostomy Nurse.

I've never used the word suppurative in my documentation as a wound care nurse. Hydadrinitis suppurativa is the only place I've really seen the term used in all the notes I've ever read too from nurses and providers combined. I use the term purulent to describe the type of exudate whereas suppurative is a term I would use to describe the active process of oozing or expressing exudate. In my notes I just say, "Palpated wound periphery and expressed purulent exudate".

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