Re: [Paddlewise] Puncture wounds, was Re: broken paddles

BOOjum asks - <If you had a [clean] plastic hypo, why wouldn't [moderate]
pressure
irrigation be possible?

A question on saline solution - By adding salt and thus 'salinating'
the water, does it make the water less osmotic?  Is the goal to
prevent the liquid from rapidly permeating the wound?>

There's a whole rat's nest of slightly different things going on which
involve terms like "osmolar...osmotic....hyper(or hypo-)tonic.." and so
forth. A simplistic way of thinking about it is that there are ions,
concentrations of minerals, on each side of a cell's membrane. There are
also what's called "ionic pumps" which maintain differing concentrations of
these minerals. But if fluid outside a cell (like sterile water) has no
minerals and the fluids inside the cell have, and need, significant
concentrations of minerals, that mis-match is going to damage the cell.
"Free" water will tend to pass into the cell, "trying to equalize the
concentration of minerals" on each side of the membrane. The result is that
the cell can be damaged, and can even rupture because of the overabundance
of water inside it. So BOOjum's first observation that pure water is "very
osmotic" in the sense that it readily tends to migrate across a cell
membrane, is quite correct.

What you're trying to do by using saline rather than water is to use a
solution which has something closer to the cell's mineral concentrations.
Saline as such isn't perfect, fo course. There are other, fancier, solutions
which can be used. But saline works well enough in most situations, and it's
just about the only thing you can make up in a field situation.

RE: Carrying a syringe - yes, that would work fine. Best would be to carry a
sterile plastic syringe of somehwere between 20 and 50 ml size in its
original plastic wrapper. I don't think you can boil these things and have
them still in usable condition, though I've never tried that. ==>I also
don't know of anyone who carries a plastic syringe for that purpose.<==

RE: The question of whether an antibiotic cream or ointment is ever useful -
Well, they're okay for minor burns. Creams, as opposed to ointments, are
good dressings for that. But they need to be removed completely, the wound
cleaned thoroughly, and the cream re-applied once or twice a day (depends on
the depth of the burn, how much pus there may be, etc etc....) for best
results. They also make a nice non-sticky coating after some minor wound
repairs; the dressing, if any is used, is easier and less painful to change
that way.

BTW - everyone has probably already realized that when I described how to
make sterile saline in a field situation I meant to start with a liter of
*clean water* rather than a liter of "sterile" water, then boiling the
resultant saline solution.    But if your water has been made potable by
adding clorine or bromine in any form, then best boil it for a while to
drive off the halogen ions, which form acids and would really smart...   :-)


Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY

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