Hello,
I had a plantar wart of about 1-1.5 cm removed from my heel. Originally went for laser removal but surgeon unexpectedly said it would have to be some different tech that's similarly fast but allows him to preserve the cut out tissue and send it for biopsy. So I went for it, the procedure took about 30 seconds and it left a hole about 3 cm in my heel. The surgeon (who's the only doctor I could talk to in this private clinic) told me not to worry about bandaid or anything, just wash out the open wound with strong flowing water from the shower and that's all.
After getting home the blood already soaked through my sock and filled my shoe so I had to return and they re-bandaged. This time it was ok. I had a bad feeling about the medical advise because the wound felt way more serious than just leaving it without care so I asked a nurse who has experience with wound care and she said the opposite: Avoid the wound getting wet in the shower. She's cleaned it out with hydrogen peroxide and covered with gauze. I had no complains for that first day postop. Then another nurse (we had two nurse attending another family member every day so they helped in) had a different method. She just applied bethadine (or some disinfectant we had) and then silver-sulfadiazine (in the US called silvadene I think) and and 'sudocrem' on the wound edges, then covered with 'granuflex' (hydro-colloid based band aid) and wrapped in bandage. It was on the next day (2nd day post-op) when I noticed that the wound got much bigger apparently. While before silvadene, the wound had smooth edges, after a day with this treatment the wounds edges looked kind of dry and white and they were more like vertical walls coming out of the wound. Thus the wound got much bigger (about 5cm x 3cm). After continuing this treatment for 3 more days the wound seems to be the about the same size and if anything it may be even a bit deeper than before (although I can't tell for sure but definitely no improvement).
I'm trying to decide what to do, should I follow the current procedure or not? Is it normal for the wound edges to look so different when silvadene is used? Some articles on the net suggest to avoid silver-sulfadiazine because they say it just slows down wound healing. Is there a better alternative? Some suggest moisture is bad for infection and I should allow some air to the wound (I'm tied to bed with this anyway because the wound is too big to be walked on). Some suggest the opposite saying that moisture (but not wet) is actually helping wound healing and it should be covered. The silvadene cream definitely makes it moist.
I'm planning to find another doctor and have a look at it after Christmas (in about 5 days) and continue with the current method until then but any suggestions of what of the above procedure may be failing or what's a better way to do would be appreciated.
Thank you