Abscess Drainage & Minor Burns: Emergency Room Near You
Burns are quite common injuries and chances are that we have all suffered from one at one time or the other. While they can range from minor to severe, in most cases, the burns we suffer are usually minor and can be handled at home with home remedies and maybe over-the-counter pain relievers for the pain. While minor burns are normally nothing to worry about, infections as far as they are concerned, especially when not handled properly are usually a major concern, and with infections come abscesses. An abscess forms when pus accumulates in a particular area of the body, usually due to an infection. Abscesses are also known as boils or cysts. While they can develop in any area of the body, most of the time they develop on the skin or in the mouth. If you have an abscess, you may experience some pain, inflammation or reddening of the skin near the abscess as well as some swelling. If the abscess doesn’t resolve with antibiotics, it may need to be drained. This is important since if an abscess is not treated, things could get serious and even life-threatening if the infection spreads. This article will look to highlight the process of abscess drainage at an emergency room as well as how you should handle a minor burn to prevent infection hence prevent an abscess from forming.
If you have suffered a minor burn or if it is not extensive or covering significant areas of the body such as your hands, feet, joints, face or genitals, then you can have it treated at home with home remedies. In such a situation, the first thing to do is to protect yourself from more burning. Remove any burning material from the affected area to prevent any further damage. You should then proceed to wash the area with water and soap to clean it and remove any dirt or debris. After cleaning and drying the burned area, you should apply an antibiotic ointment which will help protect the burn wound from bacteria as well as keeping the wound from drying up. You can then use a gauze pad to cover the wound after which you can wrap the injured area with a roll of gauze and then secure it with adhesive tape to ensure it stays in place and the wound remains covered. If you need to, you can take over-the-counter pain relievers to help with the pain.
The above will help the wound heal properly and prevent infection from ensuing. However, if you do get an infection and an abscess forms, you should go to an emergency room near you to have it drained if it doesn’t resolve on its own with the help of antibiotics as mentioned above especially since trying to treat an abscess on your own may only serve to spread the infection. We are going to take a look at the process of abscess drainage. The first thing the emergency room physician will do when looking to drain your abscess is to use a local anesthetic to numb the area around the abscess and prevent you from feeling pain and make sure you are as comfortable as possible for the drainage. The physician will then make an incision into the skin over the abscess to allow the pus to escape and drain. The size of the incision made will depend on the volume of the abscess, as a large volume may require a bigger incision. It will also depend on how deep one has to go before encountering the pus. Here the physician may either leave the cavity open to allow the pus to flow out or they may use a drainage tube through which the abscess may drain.
Once the abscess is drained, the lining of the abscess cavity is then removed. This lining usually forms when the cells that are normally formed for the surface of the skin migrate into an abscess and line its cavity in a process called epithelialization. It is this lining that prevents drugs from reaching the abscess which is why most don’t resolve with antibiotics. This lining must be removed to prevent the abscess from reoccurring as it also promotes reoccurrence. Once the epithelial lining, as it is called, is removed, the physician will proceed to clean and irrigate the wound with saline thoroughly. In cases where the abscess wound is not too large or deep, the doctor may pack it with gauze for 24-48 hours which will absorb any drainage or pus. For abscesses that are deeper, the doctor physician will insert a drainage tube after cleaning of the wound is done with the incision being closed with simple stiches once the drainage tube is in place and a sterile dressing applied. This tube will stay in place for a number of days, maintaining drainage and ensuring that the abscess doesn’t reform or reoccur after which the tube will be removed to allow the abscess wound to close and heal. While an abscess can be painful, once it is drained, the pain is usually drastically reduced and it usually heals quickly afterwards. You may be given antibiotics as well as after-care instruction, which you should ensure you follow to the latter, from how to change the bandages to how to clean the wound.
It is our hope that the discussion above will be of great help if you are looking for information on abscess drainage and minor burns.
