antiseptics

[tangent]

Some things that might be useful antiseptics for wound care in the
austere environment:

*Ethanol - ferment/distill your own. Similar limitations regarding
use in deep tissues to isopropyl alcohol (don't do - it stings! and
devitilizes tissue), but good for small cuts, surface preparation
(including skin prep for surgery), and instrument sterilization.
("stings" may be an understatement - causes sufficient pain to
induce shock on occasion)

*Iodine may be obtainable if you are near the ocean.

*Clorox (tm) - use straight from the bottle for instrument
sterilization, but _not_ on people. Dilute by 1:60 for
use as a wash, especially for burns (that's one _quart_
of bleach diluted with water to form 15 _gallons_ of
wash solution for us folks who still use the traditional
system of measurements). Remember to rinse it off with
boiled (and cooled) water afterwards. If pain results
from this concn., dilute it again by the same volume (out
to 1:120) and increase the contact time. If you have baking
soda, dilute by 1:10 using enough baking soda to adjust the
pH to less than 8.3 (that's where phenophthalein changes+),
and you have a modified Dakin's solution for use on suppurating
wounds.

*Absent anything else, remember that "the solution to pollution
is dilution" and lavage the wound with lots of _clean_ water.
(when you need to repeatedly wash a wound out, making the last
wash a normal saline wash can help maintain the right osmolality,
but is not essential)

+If you don't have phenophthalein, take some tomatoes, chop them
up, put in a container with just enough water to cover them, and
boil for 40 minutes or so. The resulting solution will go from dark
yellow to yellow as you get into the pH range desired.

(Doing the same to cherries should get you a solution that goes
green to brown; red cabbage will go from green to blue at slightly
lower pH.)
--
************************************************** ****************************
Renegade academician. They're a dangerous breed when they go feral,
academics are...a chemist, too.
--(James P. Blaylock in "Lord Kelvin's Machine")

My organization hasn't agreed with any of my opinions so far, and
I doubt they'll start now.

Stanley Roberts

> Don't forget the Aloe vera plant! This plant is priceless for healing cuts,
> burns, abrasions etc. Just break off one of its fat leaves and squeeze the
> juice onto the wound and it forms a healing jelled cover which not only feels
> better immediately, but heals so quick you won't believe it. We use it all the
> time and swear by it.

Aloe vera has been shown to work well on wounds that are _not_ full
thickness. Here are some references for those interested.

There is some fairly good evidence that the topical
application of aloe vera gel (from some species of the plant) is
beneficial for wound healing. How beneficial depends on the wound,
and it is usually best to support the patient with conventional
therapies.

A good review dealing with this, as well as other complementary
topical therapies for wound care, is C. R. Rund "Non-conventional
topical therapies for wound care" (Ostomy Wound Manage. 1996 Jun;
42(5):18-20, 22-4, 26).

The issue of aloe vera's effectiveness on oral administration is
a bit less clear. However, there is a recent paper which seems to
support the claim that it is useful: P. Chithra, G.B. Sajithlal,
and G. Chandrakasan "Influence of Aloe vera on collagen
characteristics in healing dermal wounds in rats" (Mol. Cell.
Biochem. 1998 Apr;181(1-2):71-6). There is also an older paper
that suggests it may be equally effective by both topical and
oral routes, at least in mice: R. H. Davis, et al "Wound healing.
Oral and topical activity of Aloe vera." (J. Am. Podiatr. Med. Assoc.
1989 Nov;79(11):559-62).

In other words, used _appropriately,_ it may be a good thing.
As with all phytopharmaceuticals, be particulary careful of
allergic reactions, and learn the conditions under which it
should be used.
************************************************** ****************************
Renegade academician. They're a dangerous breed when they go feral,
academics are...a chemist, too.
--(James P. Blaylock in "Lord Kelvin's Machine")

My organization hasn't agreed with any of my opinions so far, and
I doubt they'll start now.

Stanley Roberts

[Yarrow]

Tangent... I know many an amish person that soaks their deep wounds... cuts and abrasions in pure Lysol liquid... in fact many of the homes carry it right in their supplies...

What do you know about green soap... I have used that as an antiseptic...and yet know it was used a long time ago for disinfecting instruments...

[tangent]

tincure of green soap seems to be an anti-microbal agent. it's apparently used as an alternative to iodine based scrubs for ppl alergect to iodine (like when doing transfusions), also saw ref to it being used as an anti-biohazard measure - additional site said it was popular w/ surgeons pre- and durring WWII. regular green soap is made from olive oil and doesn't seem to have the anti-microbial properties, the tincure is made w/ ethyl alcohol. All sources said scrub for at least 30 seconds to disinfect. found no reference to soaking instraments in it. tattoo artists seems to like it...

I'd never heard of it before, be interesting if the olice oil based stuff is anti-bacterial, though...

[RESQDOC]

Don’t put anything in a wound that you wouldn’t put in your own eye.

Sterile water or saline, with gentle pressure irrigation, debridement of non-viable tissue, removal of visible contaminants and foreign bodies, and good tissue handling technique is all that is necessary or desirable for wound cleaning. Povidone-iodine solution (not Scrub, which has detergents) is acceptable to use in wounds, nothing more than a 10:1 dilution is needed. Other wound cleaners either have no effect or are harmful. Do not use alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, soaps, bleach, Lysol, or anything else on wounded tissue. If it is infected & nasty leaving it open, cleaning with sterile saline/water, and continued debridement is the management of choice, don’t try and nuke the infection with a powerful germ killer, you will do more harm than good.

These items however are fine for use on intact tissue for cleaning purposes, such as prior to surgery, just don’t get them down in the wound. Bleach in very dilute concentrations has been used in the past for nasty infected wounds however this is now out of favor as even the really dilute solutions produce unacceptable damage at the cellular level. If used it should be very dilute indeed, barely stronger than chlorinated drinking water, and used for 48-72 hours max, as it really interferes with the development of new healthy tissue.

I’d pass on the Lysol. A case of the body healing in-spite of, rather than because of, what is done, as is the case in so many folk remedies (and modern medicine, IMO).

Tincture of green soap, in the old sense, mutated into Phiso-Hex and similar products. Again, not in open wounds. Good skin scrub, iodine is better if the patient is not allergic to it.