Nail Punctures

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 111, 12 May 1945, Page 6

Nail Punctures

(By the Department of Health.) For a child to run a nail into his foot is not at all uncommon wherever boxes or wood with nails therein are left lying about. In construction works nail puncture wounds of feet or hands are happening all the time. Whether it’s a child playing, or a worker working, nail puncture injuries want prompt treatment.

There’s always the danger of infection—and in a foot or hand this can be so serious as to lead to crippling. Should horses or cattle be about, there’s the more remote danger of tetanus. Now a nail that pierces the foot is wiped clean in the first quarter inch of the puncture tract. Jn some factories and construction units employing doctors it’s customary to cleanse the area and with pointed scissors to trim away the edges of the wound through the full thickness of the skin so that a round hole is left that will give good drainage. The wound, if very dirty, is probed for a quarter of an inch, to cleanse it, and then dressed. By such attention infection and sick leave are reduced to negligible proportions. When your child runs a nail into the foot, you should give up time at once to dressing the injury. Wash the wound well with soap and water, paint it with antiseptic, such as iodine or metaphen and put on a sterile dressing. 1 That night or the next day should there be throbbing, tenderness, swelling—signs of infection—soak the foot

in hot epsom salt water, or put on glycerine and epsom salt poultice. If this doesn’t stop the trouble, call your doctor. He will decide whether more drainage is needed and possibly whether tetanus antitoxin should be used. The chances are you’ll have no bother if you always wash and dress a