Dr. Joel Aronowitz - Quick Explanations: How to Know If Your Wounds is Infected

 

Dr. Joel Aronowitz
Dr. Joel Aronowitz



Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Okay, now, this comes up a lot. How do you tell if your wound is infected? If you have an infection, or you just have…”

(Bridget mutters something.)

Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “...didn't even get the question out.”

Bridget: “There's a pattern here. Did you ever see the one person comment on the Instagram like...Bridget, stop cutting Dr. Arano off!”

Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “No, so there's one person out there on my side, thank you so much.”

Bridget: “It was a troll account.”

Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “May have been me trolling all…(laughter). Right, but it's never too late, and it's never too often to review...infection, and it's because it's not easy. There, what are the four cardinal signs of infection? Pain, swelling, redness…”

Bridget: “And would you say pain, swelling, heat?”

Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Yeah, this is the way you feel heat with the back of your hand. Your the back of your hand is better for assessing temperature, and it's also good to note that the redness is an angry redness, as opposed to, right, just a pink, natural pink color from swell, from a little bit of inflammation or healing. So, there's a difference. The same thing that causes any inflammation will have those signs. So sometimes, you have those signs without an actual infection, but if you have those four signs in a wound, in an area, then a type of infection should be considered. And they're basically two types of infection in the skin, cellulitis, which is red, will then lead to streaking up your leg or up your arm, a very dangerous situation, but you won't have an abscess.

Bridget: “Oh I love the abscess!”

Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “And the opposite, where it becomes a volcano, and it comes to a head, and needs to be lanced. And that's where Bridget comes in.”

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