This is the Medscape Medical Minute. I'm Dr. George Lundberg.
Normal isotonic saline is generally favored to cleanse wounds. Two investigators from Australia studied the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and 4 other major databases to report in 2008[1] on 11 randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials that compared rates of infection and healing with water and saline, as well as no cleansing. Tap water was statistically more effective than saline at reducing infection rates in adults with acute wounds and no different than saline in children. No statistically significant differences in infection rates were seen when wounds were cleansed with tap water or not cleansed at all. So you have lots of choices when confronted with an acute wound.
This article is selected from Medscape Best Evidence.[2] I'm Dr. George Lundberg.
Footnotes
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References
- 1.Fernandez R, Griffiths R. Water for wound cleansing. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008;1 doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003861.pub2. CD003861. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Pediatrics in Medscape Best Evidence, powered by McMaster Plus. Available at: http://www.medscape.com/pages/features/newsletters/bestevidence/pediatrics Accessed May 29, 2008.
