Steps of a wet to dry dressing

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carleah

41 Posts

I should add from my hospice days that it is important to get rid of the wound drainage. That is where gauze dsgs are less than optimal. When the wound is packed with an absorbent dressing such as alginate it must be replaced once the dressing is soaked. That may be more often depending on the amount of exudate.

tbeck3579

1 Post

This topic was started 6 years ago, and I see that many nurses are still discussing wet-dry under other topics and performing wet-dry per Dr's orders. Today, a patient with 2 different wounds was told by the Dr. to do wet-dry once a day, with no additional wound care or dressings -- standard gauze and sterile saline -- nothing more -- no washing, nothing. One foot has a large wound (4" surgical incision) from a post-op diabetic foot ulcer, and the other foot has a big toe with a blister that hasn't healed for over a month. The stitches were removed today and the surgical wound is still open in areas. Patient is on IV antibiotics at home without an off-loading device of any kind -- told to use crutches or scooter -- 60 yo with no upper body strength. The patient doesn't feel anything, so pain isn't a concern. Wondering how everyone feels about the wet-dry wound care that this patient is receiving.

CharmedJ7

193 Posts

It's frustrating. Wet-to-dry dressings at best will do little real harm to otherwise clean and normal post-op wound. It's totally inappropriate for more complicated high-risk wounds. Non-healing wounds deserve a wound consult. Wet-to-dry orders are lazy and acting under the basic assumption the wound will heal itself (clearly not the case above).

Just my :twocents:. Mine and.... the literature's

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