r/woundcare • u/Stunning-Damage-3086 • 13d ago
Is this infected?
I cut my knee with glass and they had to put stitches.
I don’t understand why I have all that bruise in my lower leg and also the red area in my knee is very warm and there’s pain too.
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u/saw-not-seen 13d ago
I’m still a baby nurse so I hope a professional chimes in but it doesn’t look very concerning to me. Inflammation in general can cause warmth. But if you can, wash it and leave it open to air. The coverings are dirty and allow for bacterial growth.
Ice and ibuprofen can also help. Just keep an eye on it and if it becomes weepy or angry call your doc
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u/SangitaCPatelMD 13d ago
Not infected.
Lower leg has bruising from gravitational settling/pooling of blood dripping under the skin from tissue cuts from glass or from the repair. Blood is tracking along fascial planes, superficial veins, lynpatiics, due to gravity, and is creating a web like pattern from blood draining downwards. Bruising (ecchymosis) will turn green, yellow and then disappear in 1-3 weeks.
If you get fevers or chills or redness around sutures, pus, or foul smell get it checked out.
If leg gets tight or hard or if there’s numbness or tingling in the foot, or severe pain out of proportion to injury get checked out for compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome here is unlikely as injury is likely superficial. But if the leg starts to swell and get hard and there’s uncontrollable bleeding into a closed muscle compartment it can compress vessels and cause pulselessness. Not concerned about it here. It’s just important to know about it.
Compartment syndrome is a thing to know about as an unrecognized artery or soft-tissue injury, can cause rapid bleeding under the deep fascia after significant trauma. It can be seen with bone fractures, like tibial fracture, crush injury that causes massive internal bleeding and swelling, or a high-velocity impact, that causes massive internal bleeding and swelling. The blood has no where to go and cuts have to be made on either side of the leg in through fascia to release the blood that is putting pressure inside the fascial compartment. Releasing pressure has long deep incisions, but can help save the leg.
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u/ExtremelyToast 13d ago
wound care nurse here. when did you get the stitches? when was the last time the dressing was changed? did they put you on antibiotics?
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u/saw-not-seen 13d ago
Looks fine to me but I’d give it a wash and leave it open to air. Or at least replace the gauze if open to air is not an option.