Sometimes, after surgery or when a person has a traumatic wound, a surgeon places the tip of a rubber drain into the person’s wound to drain fluid out more freely.
A wound must drain well for it to heal. It is important to remove all wound drainage to ensure that bacteriaand fluids are no longer present in the bottom of the wound (the wound bed).
When fluids are not able to drain, but build up inside a wound, infection can form.
Examples of conditions that require the use of wound drainage devices in the home include:
When you provide care to someone with a wound drainage device, you need to know:
Managing a wound drainage device is safe and easy as long as you follow the principles reviewed in this lesson.