Incision opened up!

Emi2 · 02-13-2004, 11:21 AM

I had bladder surgery Feb. 5th and my staples were removed before discharge on Feb. 11. Last night while inspecting my incision we noticed that the top 2 inches (beside my belly button) has opened up! I'm on antibiotics and we are dressing it daily but its really nasty. I'm wondering if it opened because the staples were removed to early considering I have no muscle to hold the incision together? And is there anything I can do to make it heal faster, I'm so worried it will get infected !

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow"
~ Anon

SCI-Nurse · 02-13-2004, 02:27 PM

Emi - Sometimes incisions do open up, however, they should not. One must remember that healing is slower in the person with SCI. I would urge you to call your surgeon ASAP. He needs to look at this and decide how far down it is open and how to best treat it to facilitate healing. Until you reach him, I would suggest that you get what is called a 'steristrip' or something similar, that pulls the edges of the incision into proximity to one another. Keep a dressing over the area to keep the site as clean as possible. CRF

02-13-2004, 11:21 AM	#1
Emi2 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 3,205	Incision opened up! I had bladder surgery Feb. 5th and my staples were removed before discharge on Feb. 11. Last night while inspecting my incision we noticed that the top 2 inches (beside my belly button) has opened up! I'm on antibiotics and we are dressing it daily but its really nasty. I'm wondering if it opened because the staples were removed to early considering I have no muscle to hold the incision together? And is there anything I can do to make it heal faster, I'm so worried it will get infected ! "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow" ~ Anon

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02-13-2004, 02:27 PM	#2
SCI-Nurse Moderator Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: USA Posts: 41,360	Emi - Sometimes incisions do open up, however, they should not. One must remember that healing is slower in the person with SCI. I would urge you to call your surgeon ASAP. He needs to look at this and decide how far down it is open and how to best treat it to facilitate healing. Until you reach him, I would suggest that you get what is called a 'steristrip' or something similar, that pulls the edges of the incision into proximity to one another. Keep a dressing over the area to keep the site as clean as possible. CRF