Anyone who has seen Pepe Danquart’s 2004 Tour de France documentary *Höllentour* will probably not have forgotten the shower scenes featuring Rolf Aldag and Erik Zabel: After a crash during the Tour, both of them marched into the bathroom with a root brush to scrub their fresh, extensive grazes on their thighs. The rustling of popcorn in the cinemas fell abruptly silent. The pros called this method of cleaning wounds the “pizza treatment”. Unthinkable for anyone who’s ever stood in the shower with a graze and found even the running water felt like “burning hell”. The purpose of this brushing ordeal: to remove all foreign particles right down to the pores and stimulate blood circulation for faster healing.
Sports medicine specialists now advise against this radical procedure. Not least because using a brush – which is never completely sterile – rubs a lot of germs into the wound, which in turn can lead to inflammation. But how should a graze be treated according to current guidelines? Much, much more gently and carefully:
Graze wounds heal best in a moist environment
A basic distinction is made between an abrasion of the outermost layer of skin (epidermis) and a graze that is already bleeding slightly and oozing, where the second layer of skin (dermis) has also been damaged.
Step 1: Cleaning the wound
It is best to rinse the wound immediately with cool, clean water and remove any small stones with sterile tweezers to prevent them from becoming embedded or causing permanent ‘dirt tattoos’. If the wound is bleeding or oozing, wait a little longer before continuing with treatment. By releasing blood and lymph fluid, the body naturally flushes out foreign particles. If you have a disinfectant spray to hand, you can spray it onto a small wound. However, this spray kills not only harmful bacteria but also the beneficial skin bacteria responsible for healing. Therefore, only use it if the wound is heavily soiled.
Please don't:
- Spitting or blowing on the wound (saliva contains germs!)
- Use hydrogen peroxide for cleaning (Risk: vascular occlusion!)
- Apply a spray plaster and healing ointment: both help speed up the healing process
Step 2: Should you dress the wound or let it air-dry?
Minor grazes can easily be left to air-dry. A scab will soon form and the injury will be quickly forgotten. Unless, that is, the graze is on the knee and/or elbow and keeps reopening due to normal movement. In that case, the following treatment is recommended, which is also ideal for larger and weeping grazes:
After cleaning the wound, cover it with a wound dressing containing hydrocolloid gel. This keeps the graze moist whilst absorbing any wound exudate. This also reduces the formation of scabs, which might stick to the dressing and be torn off when the dressing is changed.
3. When should you see a doctor about a graze?
If the wound is extremely painful, becomes severely swollen and is oozing fluid or pus, this suggests an infection, which must be treated by a doctor. You might as well take this opportunity to have your tetanus vaccination top-up!
Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
