Cuts and grazes
Almost any everyday wound can be seen through at home: stop the bleeding, wash it, cover it, and within a few days it starts to close.
On this page
Medicines commonly prescribed for Cuts and grazes
For informational purposes only. Always consult a doctor before using any medicine.
FUSIDIC ACID REDOXFARMA 20 mg/g CREAMIllustrative imageDosage form: CREAM, 20 mg/gActive substance: fusidic acidManufacturer: Redox Farma S.L.U.Prescription required
FUCIDINE 20 mg/g OINTMENTIllustrative imageDosage form: OINTMENT, 2 %Active substance: fusidic acidManufacturer: Laboratorios Leo Pharma S.A.Prescription required
Dosage form: TOPICAL SOLUTION, 3 g hydrogen peroxide / 100 mlActive substance: hydrogen peroxideManufacturer: Pharmex Advanced Laboratories S.L.Prescription not required
Almost any everyday wound can be seen through at home: stop the bleeding, wash it, cover it, and within a few days it starts to close. The hard part is not the dressing itself but telling three situations apart in time: when a plaster is enough, when the wound needs a doctor within hours, and when it is a matter of minutes and an ambulance. Here is each in turn, along with how to tell that a wound has started to become infected.
Stopping the bleeding
Only one thing actually works: pressure. Everything else is secondary.
- Look at the wound and make sure nothing is left inside it.
- If it is clean, press on it with folded gauze, a bandage or a clean towel and hold for ten minutes without letting go. Without letting go is meant literally: every peek to see whether it has stopped tears away the fresh clot and resets the clock.
- If glass, a splinter or a nail is sticking out, leave it there. The fragment often acts as a plug, and on the way out it cuts a second time. Press the cloth on either side of the object, drawing the edges of the wound together, and do not press down on it.
- You can raise an injured arm or leg, which slows the flow, but on its own that will not stop the bleeding. Raise it and keep pressing.
- Once the bleeding stops, put a dressing over the top. If the gauze soaks right through, do not take it off: add another layer over it and press for another ten minutes.
Always tell the doctor if you take blood-thinning medicines. Wounds bleed for far longer in that case, and a plaster is rarely enough on its own.
Washing the wound and covering it
Once the bleeding has stopped, a small wound can be dealt with at home.
- Wash your hands and put on disposable gloves if you have them.
- Rinse the wound with clean water, either drinkable tap water or bottled. Hold it under a gentle stream for a couple of minutes: physically flushing the dirt out matters more than any antiseptic.
- Wipe the skin around the wound with antiseptic, but do not pour it inside. Hydrogen peroxide, alcohol and iodine damage living tissue within a wound and slow healing down.
- Pat the surrounding skin dry with gauze and cover the wound with a sterile dressing or a plaster.
- Change the dressing whenever it gets wet or dirty, and do not let the wound dry out: under a dressing that keeps it moist it closes faster and scars more neatly than under a hard scab.
Grazes deserve a note of their own. If sand, grit from the road or soil has been driven into one, all of it needs to come out within the first few hours, otherwise the particles stay in the skin and turn into permanent dark specks. At home this is done patiently with water and soft gauze; if it hurts too much to manage, the wound will be cleaned properly under local anaesthetic.
If the wound is painful, ordinary over-the-counter painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen will do. Children and teenagers are not given aspirin. It is not the best choice for an adult with an open wound either, because it interferes with clotting.
When to call an ambulance
Call the emergency number (112 across Europe) or go straight to an emergency department if:
- blood is spurting or pumping out, is bright red, and pressure does not slow it;
- the bleeding will not stop after ten to twenty minutes of firm pressure;
- sensation has gone near the wound, or a finger or limb will not move properly, which points to a damaged nerve or tendon;
- the wound is deep or large, the edges gape, or fat, muscle or bone is visible;
- there is a deep cut on the face, the palm of the hand or the fingers;
- an object is embedded in the wound, which you should not pull out yourself;
- the person turns pale, breaks into a cold sweat, becomes drowsy or confused: these are signs of serious blood loss.
Do not drive yourself in that state. Ask someone to take you or call an ambulance, and bring the list of medicines you are taking.
When a doctor should see it, without an ambulance
Some wounds look unimpressive and still cannot be finished off at home. Get medical advice the same day if:
- the edges gape and will not come together under a plaster, so stitches or surgical glue may be needed. That is done within the first few hours, because suturing the following day is no longer appropriate and the wound will instead be left to close on its own;
- the wound is a narrow puncture, from a nail, an awl, a tooth or a piece of wire. These look trivial and are in fact the most likely to become infected, because they are deep and there is no way to flush them out;
- you have been bitten by an animal or a person. Cat bites and human bites become infected especially readily and are nearly always treated with antibiotics. If the bite happened abroad, or the animal was wild or behaving oddly, say so straight away, because rabies prevention may need to be considered;
- the wound has been contaminated with soil, manure or rust. While you are at it, recall when you last had a tetanus vaccination: with a dirty wound the booster is brought forward compared with a clean one, and the doctor will tell you the exact interval;
- you cut yourself on glass. A small fragment lodged deep is neither visible nor palpable, yet it keeps the wound discharging; sometimes an X-ray or an ultrasound scan is needed;
- you have diabetes, poor circulation in the legs, or you take medicines that suppress the immune system. In that case even a tiny wound on the foot is a reason to be seen rather than watched.
How to tell that a wound has become infected
On the first day every wound reddens a little and aches, which is a normal reaction. What is worrying is when things stop improving from the second or third day and start going the other way:
- the redness spreads beyond the edges of the wound onto previously normal skin;
- the pain builds up instead of settling;
- the surrounding skin is hot, swollen and tight;
- cloudy or yellowish fluid comes out and an unpleasant smell develops;
- there is a fever, shivering, and enlarged glands in the armpit or groin;
- a red line runs from the wound towards the trunk.
All of that needs a doctor rather than a wait until the weekend. It is usually sorted out with antibiotics and proper wound care, but the later it is started, the more has to be done.
And there is one rare but very dangerous thing that is hardly ever mentioned. If the pain around the wound becomes unbearable and is plainly out of all proportion to the size of the cut, if the redness advances visibly over hours rather than days, if the skin darkens, turns purple or blisters, and the person is obviously unwell with a high temperature, weakness and confusion, this may be a fast-moving infection of the deep tissues. It needs surgery immediately, and here the clock runs in hours. Do not wait until morning; call an ambulance.
How it all heals
A small cut closes within a few days, and a graze covers over with new skin in about one to two weeks. A fresh scar looks worse than it will eventually be: pink, firm and itchy. It takes roughly a year to mature fully, gradually fading and flattening.
What improves the result: not picking off the scab, not letting the wound dry out, and keeping a maturing scar out of the sun, since pigmentation settles easily into young scar tissue. If a scar widens, rises above the skin or pulls on the movement of a joint, that is worth discussing with a doctor separately, and better before the year is out than after.
Itching in a healing wound is normal and passes on its own. Numbness or odd sensations in the patch of skin beyond the cut that have not gone within a few weeks, on the other hand, deserve a look: a small nerve may have been damaged.
Online consultation
A remote appointment settles the main question: whether a plaster will do or the wound needs to be seen, and how urgently. Send a photograph taken in good light and describe what cut you and when. The doctor will judge the depth and the edges, say whether stitches are needed and whether you are still within the window, and advise on what to dress it with and how often to change it. It is also a convenient way to review a wound that is healing more slowly than expected, to sort out tetanus vaccination and to discuss the care of a new scar. The situations in the emergency list are not handled remotely: heavy bleeding, an embedded object, loss of sensation and rapidly mounting pain all need to be seen at once.
This material is for information only and does not replace medical advice.
Consult with a doctor about Cuts and grazes
Discuss your symptoms and possible next steps with a doctor online.
Online doctors for Cuts and grazes
Discuss your symptoms and possible next steps for Cuts and grazes with a doctor online.
