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Out of curiosity which antiseptic do you catch yourself reaching for most to clean up a minor cut?
I always go for iodine these days. It’s cheap, easily available and doesn’t contribute to antibiotic resistance. It also doesn’t slow down wound healing like alcohol does, and it doesn’t sting.
Small stuff just soap and water, bigger stuff usually gets flushed out with hydrogen peroxide and depending on the type of wound I might use iodine.
Sometimes if it needs a dressing over a few days I use a medihoney adhesive dressing as it is mostly water resistant and my skin doesn’t react to the adhesive, honey supposedly has some antibacterial properties as well. Change and clean as needed.
If its something like a wound on a foot depending on severity and type it gets soaked in warm to hot water with heaps of sea salt and a few drops of tea tree oil, then flushed again with hydrogen peroxide and if needed some iodine and dressed. If the wound bled freely enough and is clean I tend to leave it and pull skin closed if possible (steristrips) till it stops bleeding and assess.
Combinations of any of the above or not bother apart from soap and water.
I like honey as well, particularly for grazes to keep them moist. I’ve not heard of using metholated spirits to dry a wound before. Sounds paintful
I never use antiseptic to clean wounds. Antiseptics can damage tissue. The best cleaner is good old soap and water. If infection is a concern after that, a little triple antibiotic ointment (like Neosporin) on the Band-Aid or dressing takes care of it.
I will initially clean a wound with soap and water followed by peroxide but after that I just keep it covered.
Ditto. Soap and water, followed by iodine.
From what I understand, Iodine (mixed with saline) is non-toxic. I know when I did a rotation in the OR, they used the iodine/ NS mix very liberally, even in deep, large wounds. I guess I figured if it’s safe enough for use in the OR, it should be safe enough for me in the field. And as a side note, there were no precise measurements; the doc just dumped copious amounts of saline and iodine into a bowl.
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