Why Do We Clean a Wound Inside Out?

The scientific or medical term for cleaning a wound from the inside out is "debridement." Depending on how the wound happened, this may mean flushing out any contaminating material, such as dirt or other foreign matter, or continuing to remove infection-causing germs and bacteria as the wound heals.

Considerations

• Minor wounds commonly treated with first-aid antibiotic ointment and light bandaging, such as shallow skin-damaging scrapes, cuts, or scratches, don't require this type of treatment unless they become chronic.

Identification

• Any wound that has not healed in 60 to 90 days is a nonhealing, chronic wound that is no longer minor, especially when other health factors like diabetes or circulation problems are present.

Benefits

• Keeping a wound clean from the inside out promotes healing in layers. This allows new, healthy tissue to grow in the depths of the wound and prevents top layers from forming too soon and trapping dead or dying tissue, or infection in the wound.

Significance

• Wounds that are not debrided, or kept clean from the inside out, will be slow to heal and serve as a source of serious infections due to bacteria and germ growth. This may result in a host of additional health risks.

Warning

• Surgical debridement, or even amputation in the most extreme cases, can become necessary.