What is the difference between hydrogen peroxide and alcohol

Hydrogen peroxide and alcohol are both common items in life and both have a disinfecting effect. However, hydrogen peroxide is generally used for basic disinfection of skin injuries or contaminated mucous membranes, while alcohol is more irritating and has a high concentration. It cannot be used directly for surface disinfection of broken wounds. For broken wounds, it is generally necessary to use less irritating, more effective, and cleansing and repairing drugs. Hydrogen peroxide and alcohol are both relatively irritating, so it is best not to use them directly.

The difference between hydrogen peroxide and alcohol:

Alcohol is used for surface disinfection of non-mucosal wounds. It cannot be used to disinfect broken wounds.

Hydrogen peroxide is used for basic disinfection of contaminated mucous membranes or broken wounds.

Hydrogen peroxide and alcohol are used to treat common wounds:

1. Use iodine to disinfect clean wounds, which has little irritation and good effect. For clean wounds with new granulation tissue, you can also cover them with vaseline gauze to reduce the patient's pain during dressing changes and reduce tissue fluid exudation and loss.

2 Wounds with abundant blood supply and low chance of infection can be simply moistened with normal saline and bandaged with sterile dressing materials.

3 For wounds with skin defects, the defect area should be repeatedly rinsed with saline and the surrounding area can be routinely disinfected with iodine. After disinfection, cover it with saline gauze or vaseline gauze. Saline gauze is beneficial to keep the wound fresh and dry, and vaseline gauze is beneficial to the growth of granulation tissue on the wound.

4 The principle of infected or contaminated wounds is to drain pus. If necessary, open the sutures, enlarge the wound, and drain thoroughly. The wound should be repeatedly rinsed with hydrogen peroxide and saline. Necrotic tissue should be cleaned and the wound can also be packed with antibiotic gauze. It is best to deiodine and disinfect the area around the wound with two coats of iodine and three coats of alcohol. Of course, the dressing on infected wounds should be changed every day. In addition, when changing the dressing on a purulent incision, do not be disgusted by the stench. Be sure to carefully wipe off the pus on the incision, and do not be afraid to touch the incision because of the patient's pain. There should be slight blood oozing out after the pus is removed, which will help the incision heal sooner.

5. Infected wounds such as bedsores and suppurative osteomyelitis: Disinfect the area around the wound with iodine, rinse the wound with hydrogen peroxide and saline, and cover it with gentamicin dressing.

6 For osteomyelitis with exposed bone, dressing changes must be frequent because there is a lot of exudate and more dressings are needed. During the dressing change process, necrotic tissue should be removed at any time and gauze can be placed in the medullary cavity. The empirical method is to first rinse the wound with saline, then rinse with 0.1% iodine tincture, then rinse with hydrogen peroxide, and finally apply a wet compress with Qingda gauze and cover with a dressing. When the granulation tissue on the wound is fresh and the exudation is less, surgery is performed to remove dead bone and sclerotic bone, and a suitable muscle flap is used to cover the wound and external fixator is used for external fixation. After the flap survives, bone lengthening is performed.

7 The dressing changes for patients with open fractures undergoing external fixation follow the following procedure: first disinfect with iodine (while cleaning and removing necrotic tissue), then disinfect with hydrogen peroxide, then rinse with saline, and finally cover the wound with furazolidone packing. Wait for the granulation tissue to grow and then perform free skin flap coverage.