Project:
Dr Clare Heal
Senior Lecturer and GP, James Cook University

Funding:
Supported by a Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development Strategy Research Network

The conventional advice to patients has been to keep a sutured wound covered and dry for 48 hours. Yet for patients living in tropical climates, like those of Dr Clare Heal and her colleagues in Mackay, Queensland, such advice was not always easy to follow.

Literature on wound management is sparse and studies on the effect of getting sutures wet have been limited and few. So, looking for a pragmatic way to improve patient care, Dr Heal and her colleagues conducted a trial which involved more than 850 patients visiting their GP after having had a minor excision such as a mole removal.

Following suturing, half of patients participating in the trial received the conventional advice. The other half were told to uncover the wound within 12 hours and not to fret about getting it wet. In the month following surgery, the number of people in the two groups who developed an infection was almost the same (8.9% versus 8.4%).

Skin excisions form a large part of a GP’s workload and the results of this collaborative general practice research will benefit many. Presented and published nationally and internationally, this local study has provided some answers to a fundamental and essential question of care.

View the project abstract on ROAR