As discussed in the
Emergency Department prior to discharge, you have been diagnosed with an
abscess. An abscess can occur when bacteria
gain entry to the skin, either from a cut, a bite, or even very thin skin
(which can have tiny tears in it). The
bacteria multiply and a ball of pus forms under the skin, with walls around the
pus that may prevent antibiotics from getting into the abscess. If it is a small abscess, sometimes called a
boil, antibiotics may be able to treat the abscess. If it is large, however, the abscess usually
needs to be cut open in order to drain, and it must remain open and draining
for a few days or more.
If
it was opened and drained (called “incision and drainage”) in the Emergency
Department, it is possible that some ribbon gauze (also called “packing”) was
tucked inside the wound, to prevent the skin from resealing shut (and the pus
recollecting inside all over again). If
it is covered in pus and blood, that is good, because it means that the abscess
is draining well. You can pull the dirty
gauze out, and gently tuck a fresh strip of ribbon gauze (use one-quarter inch
width ribbon gauze for most abscesses, which you can buy at a drugstore) inside
the wound. Gently tuck in more gauze
until the hole is filled, but not filled tightly. Make sure some gauze is left sticking out of
the wound (so that you can pull it out in a few days).
After
2-3 days, you can either pull out the gauze and leave it out, or put in a new
strip of ribbon gauze (a fresh packing change), depending on what the emergency
physician told you to do. If it was a
large abscess it may need several packing changes every 2-3 days, but if it was
small it may not need any packing changes.
Take
all your antibiotics if you were prescribed them – don’t stop early.
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