Injuries and Wounds – Think you may need stitches?

Injuries

Injuries happen! People injure themselves on a daily basis in our active culture. These injuries range from minor to life-threatening. Injuries can happen at work or during play, indoors or outdoors, driving a car, or walking across the street. An injury is damage to your body. It is a general term that refers to harm caused by accidents, falls, hits, and more.

Wounds

Scrapes, cuts, scratches, punctured skin. These are all considered wounds, or injuries that break the skin or other body tissues. Wounds often happen because of an accident, but surgery, sutures, and stitches – those items meant to fix a wound or injury, can also cause wounds.

Minor wounds usually aren’t serious, but it is important to ensure they are clean. Any open area should be cleaned and disinfected immediately to avoid serious infections. Wounds may require first aid followed by a visit to your doctor. Make sure to look at the depth of a wound, you will need to seek medical attention if it’s deep and you cannot close it yourself. Also if you can’t stop the bleeding, cannot get dirt or other debris out, or it is not healing, make sure to see your physician.

Think you may need stitches?

And many minor wounds (or lacerations) heal without medical intervention. But some injuries require stitches or other types of treatment to ensure proper healing. If you are experiencing any of the following, make sure to seek medical help and get stitches to your wound.

Seek medical help, If your wound is:

• Deep enough to expose the dermis or yellow subcutaneous fatty tissue
• Gaping open so that you can’t easily use gentle pressure to press the edges together
• Located on or across a joint (You may also have damaged nerves, tendons, or ligaments.)
• The result of an animal or human bite (You may need a tetanus booster shot or oral antibiotics, as well as stitches.)
• A result of a foreign object impaling the area
• Made by a high-pressure impact from a projectile like a bullet
• Contaminated or resulting from a very dirty or rusty object
• Bleeding profusely (and flow does not appear to slow)
• On a cosmetically significant area, such as the face
• On or near the genitalia

Have a wound that needs medical help? Call us and come on in. We can stitch you up.