Question

Why can't you shower after stitches?

Answer 1

The reason why you can't shower after stitches is to prevent infection and to allow your skin to form a protective seal and to also ensure that the adhesives don't fall off.

After getting stitches, you often need to keep the wound and stitched area dry for the first 24 hours to 48 hours, then after that time, quick showers are fine.

Although you should avoid soaking, like in baths or pools for a bit longer to prevent opening of the wound and prevent scarring.

Also if your skin becomes too wet and soft also known as maceration before it seals, it can break down or weaken, so the skin and stitched area must be kept dry.

If you have dissolvable stitches, the dissolvable stitches could dissolve in the water.

And submerging stitches can also cause the wound to open again.

Stitches take between 3 days to 14 days to heal, depending on the location of the stitches.

Most surface wounds that are stitched up, heal within about 7 days to 10 days.

And face stitches heal within 3 to 5 days and are removed within those 3 to 5 days to reduce scarring.

Stitches in joints and high tension areas, like the elbows, knees etc, heal within 10 days to 14 days.

Dissolvable stitches absorb over 1 to 2 weeks, although some dissolvable stitches can take a couple of months.

And although the stitches are removed quickly, it also takes between 4 weeks to 6 weeks for the tissue to rebuild to maximum strength.

While the stitches are healing, you should keep the stitches and wound dry for the first 24 hours to 48 hours, or up to 5 days for surgical glue.

The normal symptoms after getting stitches are mild bruising, mild swelling and some slight redness, which often peak around 2 to 3 days after the stitches.

Other normal symptoms after getting stitches are mild tenderness or even some itching as the wound heals.

Its also normal to have some light and clear drainage or a couple drops of blood after getting stitches and the initial symptoms often go away within a few days.

Having some slight soreness is also normal after getting stitches, but the soreness should go away over 1 to 2 weeks.

Getting stitches is considered a minor surgery and it involves using surgical techniques to close the lacerations or wounds and is often performed under local anesthesia, in which the area will be numbed and can be performed in an urgent care or office setting.

After getting stitches you often return home the same day and it's considered an outpatient procedure.

Wounds that should not be stitched are wounds that are clean, shallow or small cuts that are less than 0.25 in deep/0.75 in. long.

Other wounds that should not be stitched are minor abrasions, minor bites from animals or humans and also deeply contaminated, puncture or old wounds.

Wounds that are often older than 8 to 24 hours should not be stitched and closed as it can trap bacteria in the wound and cause infections.

Minor and shallow cuts, like superficial scratches or cuts that have smooth edges, often stay together on their own and don't need to be stitched.

Puncture wounds, like narrow and deep wounds, like from stepping on a nail are also difficult to clean and closing them by stitching them can trap bacteria and so they should not be stitched.

Skin tears, like delicate, paper thin skin tears, are often not stitched.

Abrasions like superficial scraping of the skin surface should not be stitched and are often not stitched.

Old wounds, like wounds that are older than 8 to 24 hours old, are likely already infected and so they are not stitched as they can trap in bacteria.

Bites like animal or human bites are also high risk for infection and so are left open often and not stitched.

Dirty wounds and contaminated wounds, with dirt, debris, rust etc often are not stitched as they often need to be left open to prevent infection.

Even if your wound seems small you should still seek medical attention if you have any bleeding that continues after 15 minutes of applying direct pressure, or if the wound is deeper than 0.25 inches or shows fat, muscle or bone.

Or if the wound is on the face or over a joint.

Or if the wound was caused by a rusty, dirty or foreign object or if the wound was caused by a human bite or animal.

Wounds that often do require stitches are wounds that are deep and over 1/4 inch, longer than 1/2 inch, gape open or continue to bleed after 10 to 15 minutes of direct pressure.

If the bleeding is uncontrollable and the blood is soaking through bandages and or spurting or you cannot move a finger or limb properly, which suggests nerve or tendon damage or if you have dirt, debris or foreign objects that are deeply embedded in the wound.