According to the orthopaedic surgeon, there is no scientific backing for treating fresh wounds with antibiotic powder, warning that applying such and other local concoctions to fresh wounds could make them degenerate to chronic wounds.
Prof. Ogirima, a former President of the Nigerian Medical Association stated this during an exclusive interview with PUNCH Healthwise.
He blamed illiteracy for the practice of treating fresh wounds with antibiotics, noting that anybody indulging in the act is ignorant of how to manage wounds.
The professor urged patients with wounds to seek appropriate treatment from physicians, noting that seeking treatment from quacks could cause other serious complications.
He explained, “Wounds are generally a defect in the skin. When there is a defect in the skin whether it is an intentional defect or accidental, that will cause the exposure of the underlying structure under the skin.
“Applying concoction and all sorts of things on wounds is quackery. If you don’t know what you are treating, that means you don’t have the basics of treating it.
“Wounds have different categories and any wound that persists in the body for more than six weeks is called a chronic wound. We also have acute wounds.
“Now, the treatment for fresh cuts on the skin is different. There is a lot of illiteracy and ignorance in the practice where people begin to apply all sorts of things that are unorthodox on a fresh cut.
“Ideally, a fresh wound once inflicted by a surgeon or accidental should be cleaned and apposed.”
He explained that there are different categories of the sizes of wounds that might need to be assisted to aid their healing.
He noted that the human body can naturally heal any type of wound.
“We have that natural ingredient in the body that will heal any wound.
“But when we need to assist in the healing process, there are several factors that we need to follow to aid in the healing of a wound.
“The factors include; attending to the wound at the shortest possible time, closing the wound if it was cleaned, and the procedure for closing the wound varies with surgical procedures.
“So, the idea of having all sorts of substances either ampicillin powder, antibiotic powder, or any other type of powder at all, does not exist.
“It is just an act of ignorance, act out of panic, and act out of greed for money to do so.
“So, applying all sorts of concoctions to the wound is unscientific. It is crude.
“What is the scientific basis for applying the powder? It will only lead to the wasting of money because it cannot aid healing.
“What the patient should do is go to the right place to have the right treatment,” he said.
Ogirima also warned that poorly managed wounds could expand and become cancerous.
He said, “If a fresh wound is poorly managed, it can go into the stage of chronicity. And once the wound becomes chronic, it becomes an ulcer that is expanding. It becomes a suspicious ulcer. If the wound is left on the body for over six weeks without healing, we need to find out whether this wound has gone into an ulcer stage. The wound can change its cell structure and become cancerous.”
On how to manage fresh wounds, he said, “We have dressing and cleansing materials for wounds.
“There are the things we use to clean and decontaminate wounds. Decontamination means reducing the bacterial load in the wound. There is what is called the antiseptic lotion. They should be used appropriately. For fresh wounds, you clean them, close them with sutures or apply a dressing that will normally allow the wounds to have an optimal condition to heal.
“As I have said, we are just helping the wound by improving the natural ingredients in the body to take care of the wound.”
In a 2020 Article published in PMC journal titled, ‘Early application of topical antibiotic powder in open-fracture wounds’, the authors cautioned that open fracture wounds could be exposed to contaminated environments which increases their risk of infection.
According to the authors of the study, major complications such as infections are the primary predictors of poor outcomes in patients who suffered a traumatic injury and complicated recovery, noting that this can increase morbidity.
Source: healthwise
