Hand Surgery: Take Care And Avoid It

May 20
07:59

2010

Anna Woodward

Anna Woodward

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It is important to care for your hands as losing the use of them will greatly affect your life. Anything left alone for too long can lead to infection and emergency medical intervention. This article tells you more about it.

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We use our hands every day for many different activities. Throughout those daily activities it is common to get minor cuts and scrapes. However,Hand Surgery: Take Care And Avoid It Articles even though they're minor, it is important to care for your hands as losing the use of them will greatly affect your life. Anything left alone for too long can lead to infection and emergency medical intervention.

Think about how often you use your hands. In any given day, hands are used to type, text, dial phone numbers, wash our bodies, do household chores, get dressed, work, build things, garden, and for many more things. They are one of the most important parts of our bodies and are also one of the most susceptible to small injuries. Many people don't think about taking care of their hands until they are older and they begin to be a source of pain.

Getting minor cuts is something that happens to everyone. Paper cuts, cuts from cooking, cuts from work, etc. They happen. However, many people also do not take care of these minor cuts. Cuts can quickly become infected, so it is important to clean them properly and to seal out dirt. If the cut is anything more than minor or if it is bleeding profusely, the first thing to do is to apply pressure with a clean or sterile pad in order to stop the bleeding.

After that, you need to determine if you need medical care. If you need stitches, then it is time to head to the hospital. Leaving a deep cut alone is a recipe for infection and that will cause more medical care later and in some cases can make parts of your hand un-usable.

If you have any injuries to the bones, such as fractures or broken bones, it is important to seek medical care. Surprisingly, many people won't with their hands as they feel they will heal on their own. While sometimes this may be true, in general, leaving a bone to itself can cause the bones to grow back in the wrong way.

Some things you can do on your way to medical care are to make sure to stop any bleeding and to create a splint to keep everything in place. You can apply pressure around the splinted area and can also apply ice. Do not apply ice directly to your skin, and make sure not to apply it for longer than 20 minutes or so.

Burns are also common injuries and can usually be treated at home if they are minor. A minor oven burn can be cleaned with soap and water and then covered with an antibiotic ointment and a band aid. Anything beyond that needs medical attention. With all of these injuries, the thing that is a constant is to seek medical attention whenever something is anything more than very minor.

Ignoring injuries can lead to infections and ultimately to lack of use. Anything left on its own can lead to the need for surgery, which carries its own set of risks. So if you get hurt, take care to clean it properly and get to a doctor as soon as you can.