NURS 3110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Eschar, Calcium Alginate, American Wire Gauge
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Points about wound culture: excessive wound drainage - pronounced inflammatory response (soft-tissue infection, abscess or osteomyelitis, exudate on surface of wounds contains skin flora, white cells, protein. Irrigate wound with normal saline (not antiseptic solution!) and absorb excess saline with sterile gauze to remove exudate and topical antiseptics: culture viable tissue not necrotic site! Best to do needle aspiration or deep tissue biopsy: a swab culture of sacral pressure ulcer is unlikely to isolate the infecting organism, ask the physician to consider a bone biopsy or deep tissue aspiration. Types of wound culture: swab culture, difficult to obtain without contaminating specimen, prepackaged sterile culture tube (with medium) use 2 calcium alginate swab. Avoid the areas covered with yellow or black necrotic tissue; also avoid the wound margins close to normal skin: the in(cid:272)ision is infe(cid:272)ted (cid:271)ut it"s not draining. The staples will need to be removed and a deep tissue culture performed to identify the infecting organism.
