After the initial discharge of a bit of pus and blood, your wound should be clear. If the discharge continues through the wound healing process and begins to smell bad or have discoloration, it's probably a sign of infection.
A wound that's healing can produce a clear or pink fluid. An infected wound can produce a yellowish, bad-smelling fluid called pus. When fluid seeps from a wound, it is called wound drainage.
“A wound that's oozing pus definitely means you have a bacterial infection,” said Dr. Brady Didion, a Marshfield Clinic Health System family medicine physician. An incision or wound that's healing well looks slightly red and may seep clear fluid. An infected wound may ooze whitish, yellowish or greenish pus.
You also may see some clear fluid oozing from the wound. This fluid helps clean the area. Blood vessels open in the area, so blood can bring oxygen and nutrients to the wound. Oxygen is essential for healing.
Your doctor might need to drain the abscess to clear the infection entirely. In very serious cases, an infection in a wound can spread beyond the original location. It could become a septic infection that affects your whole body. When this happens, you might need hospital care.
Abscesses get better after they open and the pus drains out. Applying a warm compress can help that happen. To make a compress, wet a washcloth with warm (not hot) water and place it over the abscess for several minutes.
The wound may drain for the first 2 days. Cover the wound with a clean dry dressing. Change the dressing if it becomes soaked with blood or pus.
It's common to have small amounts of fluid drain or ooze from a scrape. This oozing usually clears up gradually and stops within 4 days. Drainage is not a concern as long as there are no signs of infection.
A weeping wound can soften the wound bed and damage surrounding skin. In turn, this endangers healing and provides a nutritional environment for germs. If you have a weeping wound, it's important to absorb the excess fluid without drying it out and apply an appropriate wound dressing.
Debride the wound by removing dead or infected tissue in the wound. Rinse the wound with salt water (saline solution) Drain the pocket of pus (abscess), if present. Pack the wound with saline-soaked dressings and cover it with a bandage.
However, antibiotics alone may not be enough to clear a skin abscess, and the pus may need to be drained to clear the infection. If a skin abscess is not drained, it may continue to grow and fill with pus until it bursts, which can be painful and can cause the infection to spread or come back.
There are four stages of wound healing - Hemostasis, inflammatory, proliferation, and maturation.
Color: Wound drainage that is part of the healing process is usually clear or has a pale hue. Slightly colored drainage or discharge that changes color may be a sign of an infection.
If you don't get a skin abscess drained, it can continue to grow and fill with pus until it bursts. A burst abscess can be very painful and cause the infection to spread. Treatment for tooth and other mouth abscesses is especially important.
Pain is an essential indicator of poor wound healing and should not be underestimated. Pain can occur from the disease process, surgery, trauma, infection or as a result of dressing changes and poor wound management practices.
Purulent Wound Drainage
Exudate that becomes a thick, milky liquid or a thick liquid that turns yellow, tan, gray, green, or brown is almost always a sign that infection is present. This drainage contains white blood cells, dead bacteria, wound debris, and inflammatory cells.
Serosanguineous is the term used to describe discharge that contains both blood and a clear yellow liquid known as blood serum. Most physical wounds produce some drainage. It is common to see blood seeping from a fresh cut, but there are other substances that may also drain from a wound.
Wounds heal faster if they are kept warm. Try to be quick when changing dressings. Exposing a wound to the open air can drop its temperature and may slow healing for a few hours. Don't use antiseptic creams, washes or sprays on a chronic wound.
Whether it's a surgical wound or one that seemed minor at first but is getting worse instead of better, any wound that's infected should be evaluated by a medical provider. Signs a wound may be infected include: Increasing pain or redness. Drainage or bleeding that won't stop.
Once the pus has been removed, the cavity needs to heal upwards from the inside out, so the opening in your skin is left open. If the cavity is deep, your surgeon will place a pack (antiseptic dressing) in it to keep it open, allowing pus to drain out and your wound to heal properly.