Cut and Wound Care
Moist and Covered Heals Better Than Dry and Open
General information from an emergency physician. It adds to your discharge papers and does not replace them or your own doctor. What this site is and isn’t
Key Takeaways:
- Keep a healing cut moist and covered. A dry scab can slow skin growth.
- Do not clean it with peroxide or rubbing alcohol. Both can harm healing cells.
- Return for spreading redness, warmth, swelling, pus, or increasing pain.
About Your Diagnosis and ED Workup
A laceration is a cut through the skin. The evaluation looks for damage below the skin. This includes injury to a tendon, nerve, joint, or blood vessel. It also looks for material left in the wound. A normal x-ray does not exclude every piece of glass or other material. Plain x-rays find only about 62% to 70% of foreign bodies.
The wound may be closed with stitches, staples, glue, strips, or nearby hair. The choice depends on the wound’s place, depth, and tension. Patient factors also matter. These methods can look alike after healing when used for the right wound.
First Steps and Evidence-Based Home Care
1. Keep it covered and moist
Use the dressing plan you were given. Moist, covered wounds heal faster. They hurt less and often leave better scars than wounds left open to dry. Plain petrolatum worked about as well as antibiotic ointment. It caused fewer allergic skin reactions.
2. Wash gently; do not scrub or soak
Wounds can usually get wet after 24 to 48 hours. Gentle washing is reasonable, but do not scrub or soak the area.
3. Skip peroxide and alcohol
Hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol damage cells needed for healing.
Timeline and Expected Recovery Course
Infection usually appears 2 to 7 days after repair. A scar changes substantially through the first year, so its early appearance is not its final appearance.
Healing can be slower or infection more likely with diabetes, lower-leg wounds, long or contaminated wounds, or a retained foreign body.
Emergency Red Flags: Return Immediately
Return to the emergency department for spreading redness, warmth, swelling, pus, increasing pain, new numbness, inability to move an injured finger, a lasting feeling that something remains in the wound, or an injured finger that no longer fully moves.
This list does not cover everything. Return if the wound is worsening or seriously concerns you.
Reviewed September 3, 2026