Despite the fact that cleaning open wounds with soap and water is a standard practice to prevent infection for the past years, international team of researchers are now saying that saline water is much better than the common practice.
Researchers from McMaster University in collaboration with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre found out that cleaning an open wounds with saline water is much better than soap and water. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Group of experts studied 2,400 patients with open arm or leg fractures. They divided the participants, the other group had their wounds cleaned with soap and water while the other with saline. They were also tested with different levels of water pressure.
After the surgery, patients' health were monitored for the next 12 months. Researchers found out reoperation rate was higher in the group that were tested with soap as there has a problems with the healing of the wounds. They also found out that cleaning wounds with very low pressure water level is an acceptable method.
"There has been a lot of controversy about the best way to clean the dirt and debris from serious wounds with bone breaks," said Dr. Mohit Bhandari, principal investigator and a professor of surgery for the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster. "All wounds need to be cleaned out-a process known as debridement-but evidence shows that cleaning wounds with soap was not better than just water, which was unexpected."
Dr. Edward Harvey, chief of Orthopaedic Trauma at the McGill University Health Centre and a professor of surgery at McGill University said that the latest findings can be best practice as it is "much cheaper" compared to the common practice with soap and water as well as high pressure water level to clean wounds.
Researchers further added that the discovery may be relevant for low and middle income countries, where most of the accidents are linked to vehicle accidents.
