So following on from this thread about me being wiped out by a car I now have some rather decent road rash on my knee. I’m not too worried about the road rash on my lower leg, arm or shoulder. They are not very deep and I expect them to scab up and heal relatively quickly.

The two main areas of damage on my knee took the full layers of skin off, and are scabbed over. These scabs are tight, and at risk of splitting if I try a pedaling movement of my knee.

There seem to be as many theories on how to best treat these as there are ways to get road rash.

So what’s the STW opinion? Let it scab over, or slather on ointment and get them softened up?

I’ve got more than enough scabs on the rest of the damaged area so the opportunity to peel off more scabs isn’t doing it for me.

Looking for the best way to get me back on the bike without risking infection.

Clean and covered in a non adherent dressing IMO

Buy the best dressings you can find. Seaweed nonadherent to keep the new skin moist.

I’ve scalped my knee cap down to bone ! I know exactly how frustrating the healing process is 🙁

The worst thing I found was that it kept sticking to the inside of my jeans / trousers or bed clothes
Best thing is the decent weathers here and shorts are good for exposing the flesh so try and leave it uncovered as much as possible, I bought a can of that savlon antiseptic spray that’s got iodene in it, the worst thing you want now is get an infection,

Mine gradually got smaller and smaller but as it was so deep the scab kept cracking and it blead all the time and seeped gunk out of it ! Eeeew

Also try and get some Ronda pads they are perforated dressings that have a cling film like side which stops the lint from sticking to it

Good luck !

Scab then pick, scab then pick, scab then pick, until it goes…or you come off again!

Tegaderm or similiar, keeps it clean, helps it heal, makes it a bit more comfortable, and best of all looks unbelievably manky.

I’m a big fan of hydrocolloid dressings. They stay on for a week or so, keep things moist inside and dry outside, they protect a little from knocks and scrapes and don’t crack like scabs.

Buy some, go for a bath or a long shower, soak it, clean it. If some of the scab some off, great. Let the surrounding skin dry. Apply dressing. Forrget about it till it comes off in 7 or 10 days’ time. Marvel at new skin.

Last time I came off, the nurse advised Vaseline over the cut. Keeps infection at bay and keeps it moist. Seemed to work pretty well for me, although needed washing off and replacing regularly or you get sticky gunk

I did find that Bio-Oil helped with minimising scarring, used it twice a day.

Last time I came off, the nurse advised Vaseline over the cut.

When I was last injured I was surprised how much rubbish advice I got from fellow nurses generally based on old wives tales and assumption. ‘Leave it open to the air to dry out’ etc. I think scabbing is seen as a hindrance to healing now, and creams and ointments unneccesary/ineffective.

My understanding is that scabbing is a hinderance to healing as well. I let mine scab as I thought it was best and the deep bits took months to heal and kept rupturing and starting to bleed again.

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2011/04/how-to-deal-with-road-rash/

I ended up using a nail file/buffer to sand my scab to keep it thin and a bit more flexible. It seemed to help but has no medical backing.

Current advice is clean it up and use a hydrocolloid dressing and leave it for a good few days, should heal a bit quicker and reduces the scarring. However (and I consider myself an expert in dealing with road rash :p ) I find it less hassle going the old fashioned route of letting it scab and just using a wound dressing and bandage (and changing daily) as whenever I’ve used the hydrocolloid dressings it’s always been a problem when showering etc. and I’ve never had one stay on properly for more than a couple of days and if it comes off/gets wet then you’re kinda back at square 1 again. It can also go very gunky under a hyrdocolloid dressing (which is good although it looks a bit alarming) however if the dressing does leak it makes a bit of mess of your clothes and you can end up feeling like a Fight Club reject at work.

If you do let it scab then after a few days I start rubbing vaseline onto the scab to soften it and allow me to start picking at it (just don’t be too aggressive with it else you’ll start it bleeding again). If you just let the scab stay on until it comes of naturally it takes ages to heal

cinnamon_girl – Member

I did find that Bio-Oil helped with minimising scarring, used it twice a day.
Only a woman could post that!

So it’s too late to stop it scabbing up, I’ve slathered some sudocrem on it (because it was the first thing I found) and it has certainly softened up the scabs. I’ll keep sticking that on and will report back if my legs falls off.

I’ll be mighty hacked off if I don’t get at least some scab picking out of this, there has to be an upside to being knocked off!

cinnamon_girl – Member

I did find that Bio-Oil helped with minimising scarring, used it twice a day.

Seems we’ve been misinformed re: the chicks/scars piece.

After a day or two I’d stop with the savlon/antiseptic creams and just use some of that orange magic/iodine spray to let it dry out, still needs the gauze over the top but if you’re luckily it won’t crack and weep so then after another couple of days you can move onto the vaseline + picking phase (you need to be patient though, if it doesn’t pick easily then leave it longer with vaseline on)