Your doctor or nurse may ask you to change your dressing at home. By placing a wet (or moist) gauze dressing on your wound and allowing it to dry, wound drainage and dead tissue can be removed when you take off the old dressing.
Your doctor or nurse will tell you how often you should change your dressing at home.
As the wound heals, you should not need as much gauze (or packing gauze).
Follow these steps to remove your dressing:
Follow these steps to clean your wound:
Follow these steps to put a new dressing on:
Call your doctor if you have any of these changes around your incision:
Also call your doctor if:
Dressing changes; Wound care - dressing change
Fonder MA, Lazarus GS, Cowan DA, Aronson-Cook B, Kohli AR, Mamelak AJ. Treating the chronic wound: A practical approach to the care of nonhealing wounds and wound care dressings. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2008 Feb;58(2):185-206.
Updated by: Shabir Bhimji, MD, PhD, Specializing in General Surgery, Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Midland, TX. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
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