How do surgical wounds heal

Eating a healthy balanced diet should give you all the nutrients your wound needs to heal. Being overweight can increase the time it takes for your wound to heal and increase the risk of getting a wound infection. You can ask your surgeon how likely this after your operation, and what to look out for. Very occasionally, you may need to have further surgery. Your doctors and nurses will do everything they can to prevent your wound from becoming infected. If your wound becomes infected, it may:.

Your wound might also leak or weep liquid, pus or blood. A surgical wound infection can develop two to three days after an operation but it can also happen up to two or three weeks later. It can even happen several months after an operation but this is rare.

If you have any of these symptoms or are worried about how your wound looks, contact the hospital ward you were on or your GP surgery. An abscess is a collection of pus, which your body produces if you get an infection. This can feel swollen and painful and you may also feel feverish. But you may need to have the abscess drained of pus and cleaned to remove damaged or infected tissue.

Your doctor may give you antibiotics to take after your abscess has been drained but this is usually only if the infection has spread. If you had an infection before your surgery, such as with perforated ruptured diverticulitis or appendicitis, you may get a deeper abscess. Your surgeon may then recommend further surgery to drain and clean it. Or you may have a CT or ultrasound scan to help your surgeon insert a drain.

Cellulitis is a bacterial infection that spreads to the deep layers of your skin. But if your skin is damaged — such as when you have a surgical wound — these bacteria can enter your body. If your wound becomes infected, you may notice that it becomes red, inflamed or swollen. If you have cellulitis, the area of affected skin may start to spread.

You may also feel unwell, with a high temperature and chills or shivers. Later on, your skin may get blisters, which may be filled with clear fluid or blood. If you have any of these symptoms, see your GP. If your infection is severe, you may need to go into hospital for treatment.

Every year, hospitals collect information about how many patients get wound infections after surgery. If your hospital is one that takes part in this monitoring scheme, they may contact you about a month after you leave hospital. The hospital passes information about wound infections to the experts at PHE. They tell PHE about things like the type of operation you had, your age, and how well you were before the operation. All the information about individual patients is treated as strictly confidential.

PHE analyses all this information and publishes yearly reports. All hospitals can use these to help them make sure fewer and fewer people get wound infections. If you want to read these reports, you can find them on the GOV. Hospitals in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland also record information about wound infections. There are arrangements in each country for this information to be collected and used to reduce the number of wound infections in their hospitals.

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Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. Stages of wound healing Healing time Poor wound healing Signs of infection When to see a doctor Takeaway A wound is a cut or opening in the skin. Stages of wound healing. How long does it take for a wound to heal? Poor wound healing. Signs of infection. When to see a doctor. The bottom line. Read this next.

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Medically reviewed by Shilpa Amin, M. This opening may be along the entire cut or just part of it. Once a wound has opened, your doctor may decide to let the wound heal from the inside out.

There is no cut-and-dry answer to healing time. The type and location of the surgical procedure, your underlying health, and incisional care may all impact the time to heal. Whether the wound was left open or closed, it will still proceed through specific phases to achieve healing. Normal surgical incision healing will proceed through several phases. The first phase involves the management of bleeding and begins in the operating room. Platelets in the blood cluster together making a type of plug, while proteins such as collagen and fibrin work together to firmly hold it in place to stop the bleeding.

During the next phase which can take up to 6 days after surgery, you may notice some pain, swelling, and slight redness. This is a normal response of the body to an injury. Expose incisions to sunlight. Take a bath unless you can keep the incision dry. Instead, take showers or sponge baths until your doctor says it's okay to take baths. Before you shower, cover the dressing with a plastic bag or use another method of keeping it dry.

Signs of infection Call your doctor if you notice signs of an infection, such as: A yellow or green discharge that is increasing. A change in the odor of the discharge. A change in the size of the incision. Redness or hardening of the surrounding area. The incision is hot to the touch. Increasing or unusual pain. Excessive bleeding that has soaked through the dressing. Changing a dressing Before you start, make sure you have gauze pads, a box of medical gloves, surgical tape, a plastic bag, and scissors.

Then: Prepare supplies by opening the gauze packages and cutting new tape strips. Wash and dry your hands. Put on medical gloves. Loosen the tape around the old dressing. Remove the old dressing. Clean the incision if your doctor told you to do so. See instructions below. Inspect the incision for signs of infection.