Wound dressing method

As for external wounds and tears, if you want them to heal, do as one scientist, versed in this art, says. He says: If you want to heal such a gap, then put on it only a bandage that starts at both ends, nothing else, but if the gap is large, then you have to apply triangular bandages, and if the wounded place is already filled, it must also be stitched up. It is better to connect the edges of the wound with triangular bandages rather than quadrangular ones, because they cover only the very site of the rupture.

Apply triangular bandages as follows. Let the gap be represented in the drawing by a straight line between two triangles; we will denote one of the triangular bandages by the letter j, the other by b, and they are located as you see. When such places are bandaged and the dressing is double-headed, it covers the tear site more tightly than if it were quadrangular; therefore, no bandages other than double-headed are allowed to connect the edges of the wounds.

One person had a wound, the bottom of which was near the groin, and the mouth near the knee, and we cured it without any incision, placing a pillow under the knee and giving it such a position that the wound was elevated. We did the same for wounds on the knee and forearm, and all of them were easily healed.

Galen says Anyone who has practiced knows that when it is necessary for the blood contained in a wound to turn into pus, then if it remains inside until all other matter changes along with it, it will be better, and the change will then occur more quickly.

Lacerated wounds with far distant edges should be bandaged with bandages connecting their edges, except in cases where the wound hurts, or when it swells and hurts even with a light bandage, or if the muscle is cut across then the edges of the wound are not connected, but they put a wick in the middle for fear that only the skin will heal and the muscle will remain ungrown.

He says the same thing happens when we cut the skin on the head and put something filling between the edges, sometimes the skin on the edges is pulled into the ulcer and in this case we must try to cause a swelling with a bandage and pull the skin out. If the rand goes along, then the bandage is left in order to connect its edges more tightly, and if it is transverse, then it has to be sewn up. The depth of the wound determines the depth of suturing; it is better to stitch it deeper than to widen the incision.

But sometimes,” Galen continues, “we are forced to make the wound wider if it is narrow and we are afraid that, due to its depth, it will heal from above and will not heal at the bottom, or if the wounded organ was in such a position when wounded that after it straightened, pus cannot flow from it and medicine cannot be injected into the wound, and if the organ is returned to the position in which it was wounded, severe pain arises. In this case, we are forced to make a suitable incision.

Know, in general, that in wounds that lie across the muscle, the discrepancies between the edges are often more significant and therefore they are more in need of deep connection of the edges and sometimes it is impossible to do without stitching and using triangular bandages, especially if there is a shortage of meat. Longitudinal wounds need this less.