I have a nice scratch on my belly caused by a branch. I was thinking of doing a scientific experiment to see what helps it heal best. The plan is to rub Savlon on one end and leave the other end untreated to see which heals quickest.
I then thought I could try Savlon vs Vasaline
So which does STW think will work best to help a scratch heal?
Your votes please!
Get a dog to lick it 😛
Cicatrin powder for grazes, out of those two Savlon probably best.
superglue
Sudocrem I used it last year when I had a gravel rash on my thigh seemed to work though that could be the placebo effect
Surgical spirit (it'll leave a cracking scar 😉 )
Film dressings - they double healing speed. Granuflex extra thin, tegaderm, opsite are three brand names
isn't honey mean to be almighy in the healing stakes? sure i remember seeing honey dessings at a silly high price!
Yep, honey.
Try the Manuka type or organic.
TJ's advice worked for me on my recent wound.
Try dribbling a bit of aftershave into it...something with a fairly high alcohol content...
dog lick works for me every time!
I think I'll try to remember TJ's advice....
Aloe vera.
Keep it clean and dressings as mentioned by TJ.
A healthy dose of MTFU.
Have you been falling off again? Prehaps you should take up a more sedate hobby, like knitting. Ohh hold on, that involves sharp pointy objects. Better give that one a miss.
Matt
I hope you are well? I am Guiding in Greece at the moment. I will be back in the UK soon and still fancy that meet-up at Lordswood.
think you will find its hand up for vaseline every time!
Honey or icing sugar is good for infected wounds I believe. Can't do much harm!
Vinegar one end, Worcester Sauce the other
No, listen to TandemJeremy. Granuflex or another film dressing. Although an expensive resource if all you've done is scratch your tummy
Vitamin E oil will help reduce the scarring - but you probaly don't want that.
A combination listerine, deep heat and a dash of salted fresh chillies.
It's more of a preventative cure though.
basically keeping it moistand not letting it dry out will speed healing time and reduce scarring, so big as plaster all the way across.
I agree with some of the suggestions for alternatives and might try them on the next cut I get. for the moment can we concentrate on Savlon vs Vasaline?
So far :
Vasaline 1 Savlon 0
I have three cut on my knee, I could try three different methods simultaneously and get back to you with the most effective!?
Okay - you do the dog licking, honey and aftershave options.
This could be the start of the STW medical trials.
[i]superglue [/i]
Which is actually a good suggestion - wasn't it invented during the Vietnam war to patch up soldiers?
Superglue is good for closing cuts up. It doesn't aid the healing of the skin though*.
* I think. I might try that on the next set of cuts.
No I guess not.
So you need superglue and a salivating dog?
My fastest healing cuts have always been the ones I kept moist (presumably like this granuflex stuff would) and closed, unfortunately I rarely can keep dressings on for more than half a day so I tend to just cover them and they take a bit longer and scar a bit more, but I'm not too worried about scars so provided it doesnt get infected it's all ok!
Maggots.
[i]Which is actually a good suggestion - wasn't it invented during the Vietnam war to patch up soldiers?[/i]
No, it was discovered during the WWII when trying to find a substance for sniper scope lenses.
Tegaderm is good. I had that covering some stitches for a week, & they healed superbly.
given my wound was a vesectomy, getting a dog to lick it would probably get me on some sort of register.
[i]getting a dog to lick it would probably get me on some sort of register.[/i]
Kennel Club?
No, it was discovered during the WWII when trying to find a substance for sniper scope lenses.
?? I was under the impression it was used for patchign up soldiers too, maybe it wasn't made FOR that but they definitely used it for that (or the two TV programmes Ive seen about the subject were mistaken, or I've been dreaming about watching TV - both possible)
Superglue for sniper scope lenses? What? Sneaking up and putting it on enemy scopes for jolly japes?
😉
Can't say I had heard that story though...
Scabs
[i]Super glue, Krazy glue, Eastman 910 and similar glues are all a special type of glue called cyanoacrylates. Cyanoacrylates were invented in 1942 by Dr. Harry Coover of Kodak Laboratories during experiments to make a special extra-clear plastic suitable for gun sights. He found they weren't suitable for that purpose, so he set the formula aside. Six years later he pulled it out of the drawer thinking it might be useful as a new plastic for airplane canopies. Wrong again--but he did find that cyanoacrylates would glue together many materials with incredible strength and quick action, including two very expensive prisms when he tried to test the ocular qualities of the substance. Seeing possibilities for a new adhesive, Kodak developed "Eastman #910" (later "Eastman 910") a few years later as the first true "super glue." In a now-famous demonstration conducted in 1959, Dr. Coover displayed the strength of this new product on the early television show "I've Got a Secret," where he used a single drop placed between two steel cylinders to lift the host of the show, Garry Moore, completely off of the ground.[/i]
So it was tested for scopes, but not actually USED. It's first pratical application was as a glue.
Still - it is a fact I shall store away for later use 🙂
[i]The use of cyanoacrylate glues in medicine was considered fairly early on. Eastman Kodak and Ethicon began studying whether the glues could be used to hold human tissue together for surgery. In 1964 Eastman submitted an application to use cyanoacrylate glues to seal wounds to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Soon afterward Dr. Coover's glue did find use in Vietnam--reportedly in 1966 cyanoacrylates were tested on-site by a specially trained surgical team, with impressive results. According to an interview with Dr. Coover by the Kingsport Times-News: [/i]
And it was used in Vietnam.
It was used at Southampton General Hospital to glue my scalp back together after a little fight with gravity. easier than stiches on the head apparently.
I thought the norm was vinegar and brown paper for head wounds?
tumeric works a treat, apparently.
Looks like I need a few more cuts to test out all these suggestions. I am off out for a ride.
warm water with table salt works very well.
[i]And it was used in Vietnam. [/i]
Yup is used for closing wounds but not what it was invented for. We use it and it works very well indeed.
[i]warm water with table salt works very well. [/i]
Care to explain why you think the salt adds any benefit?
Spider webs. Any pics?
I need a laugh as my previous employer is being a t*t and not giving a reference. 😡
So drac I take it salt has no benefit from your condescending reply. 🙂
I find it very effective on mouth ulcers, hurts like hell for a few seconds and after that any further pain seems trivial. Probably of no medical benefit but that applies to a great many drugs and procedures.
Sandwich - email me and I will give you a reference. What do you do?
Hia
Calendula
if painful, Hypericum and Calendula, sometimes labelled "HyperCal"
skins a graze over nice and fast so, it needs to be well clean
you can get the "mother tincture" [ooh madam] and make a liquid for bathing wounds.
It's homeopathic, where less really is more
google: "Ainsworth's Homeopathic Pharmacy" who also do some great stuff called "Injury", tablet form for pain/ bruising/ healing. I think you have to ask for it, I get the 200 quality.
n
n
Yup is used for closing wounds but not what it was invented for.
It was it's first PRACTICAL use, so it's just semantics now...
[i]So drac I take it salt has no benefit from your condescending reply[/i]
None what so ever so just use normal water no need to suffer having salt in a wound.
[i]It was it's first PRACTICAL use, so it's just semantics now...[/i]
First after being a general adhesive.
[i]So you need superglue and a salivating dog? [/i]
Just be careful, or you will glue the dog to your tummy
It always amazes me how many people still think animal's saliva has healing properties. Why do you think so many dogs have a "lamp shade" round their necks after surgery etc - trust me, the last thing you want is a dog licking any wound you may have (for the previously mentioned legal reasons as well as medical in some caes 🙂 ).
Oh, and salt does seem to help if there's any infection/discharge.
Anyone got 2p for me?
Vasaline appears to be winning at the moment.
I am applying each one twice a day and it looks like the vasaline end of the cut is healing better. I will give it a couple more days for conclusive results.
[i]Oh, and salt does seem to help if there's any infection/discharge.[/i]
Might seem to but it doesn't.
Might seem to but it doesn't.
Care to elaborate?
The theory behind using it seems sound and even if it "seems" to help, that keeps my patients happy and involves zero expense, which is the important thing.
The theory doesn't seem sound when you give it more than a cursory glance.
For any cut or abrasion to heal, new tissue has to grow into the gap created. That new tissue grows as cells are brought to the damaged area in tissue fluid; the exudate from the wound. Providing an environment where that tissue fluid and those cells can do their job is the quickest way to promote healing, hence the use of dressings that keep the area moist and undisturbed.
Also included in that tissue fluid are white blood cells which mop up any bugs that are around, reducing infection.
Sluicing the area down with any fluid other than something neutral like water will only disturb the delicate process of healing, washing away the new cells and spoiling the local environment, so the process has to begin all over again.
Salt water may help to reduce the bacterial load, but in doing so it also messes up the healing process.
Tis old wives tale, nothing more, and that's why we don't do it in hospitals anymore.
I guess things are a little different in human medicine.
Agreed, you don't want to disturb the normal cellular migration/WBC activity but when you've got a wound full of poo, saliva (bacteria) and pus, salt water does a nice job of cleaning, debriding (gently) and drawing out any purulent exudate. The benifits over normal water are possibly marginal but it "seems" to work better imho. And adding a little salt makes water no less "neutral" or abrasive.
Modern dressings are always going to work better, providing your patient doesn't chew/scratch them off and can afford the expense (god bless the NHS)
This doesn't help the OP though I suppose 🙂
Piss and vinegar is the best antiseptic. (Well, it's what I seem to use for most situations and I haven't died yet, so...)
Care to elaborate?
No only thing working is the fact that your cleaning the wound, there is no benefit by adding salt.
The theory behind using it seems sound and even if it "seems" to help, that keeps my patients happy and involves zero expense, which is the important thing.
But plain water does just that and without the cost of adding salt.
Crikey goes on to explain it in more detail but basically that's the reason.