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Since we're going into riding season again it's best to be preparred. You just never know when you're going to hit the deck. Case in point. Last year on my way to the recumbent retreat in Oregon I stopped off in Grants pass and did some shopping. They had this great pharmacy there that had all of the products I use in dressing road rash wounds so I purchased everything I might need just in case I crashed....well guess what? I managed to crash myself and boy am I glad I was preparred. It's bad enough crashing anywhwere, but it's always worse when you're on the road. So preparred yourself.

Just a note here. I'm still sticking with HP to clean a wound. Just dilute it by about half and that should be perfect.



Cycling is a great way to have fun, we all know that, but sometimes that fun can come to a halt pretty fast if you crash your bike and take some major road rash. During my active racing career which lasted between 1974 and 1996, I hit the deck so many times I lost count within the first few years. I 've even had races where I crashed two and even three times in one event! Ouch!
Good thing for me and now you, I (a doctor or two also helped) came up with the best way to treat common road rash so that you heal in a minimum of time and with a minimum of pain. Everything I've listed here is available through any good surgical supply store or pharmacy. This is what you need:

topical spray pain reliever with benzocain (maximun strenght)
hydrogen peroxide
scrub pad
triple antibiotic ointment with pain reliever
Zeroform 3"x5" and 5"x5"
telpa pads
paper tape
guaze bandages
web netting

So this is what you do. Obviously you want to get the wound cleaned up as fast as possible. Usually within the first 15 minutes or so the area is numb and not as painful as if you wait longer, so time is of the essance.
Spray the area with the spray pain killer ( jump around for a few seconds) after the area becomes numb, pour on the hydrogen peroxide. Then use the scrub pad to get all of the dirt and grit out of the wound. You have to get all the dirt out even if it means scrbbing and scrubbing. If you don't the area will most likely just get infected and that will prolong the healing process. After the area is cleaned, coat the wound with the antibiotic ointment, a good thick coat. Next lay the Zeroform over the wound. Next, take the telpa pad and lay it over the Zeroform and lightly tape it down with the paper tape (this is where if you have shaved lags it's going to pay off!) Next wrap the area with the gauze bandage. Next, take the web netting and pull it over the bandaged area and you're done. You look just like a pro racer now! at least your wound does.
Now leave the wound covered for a minimum of about 5 days...maybe longer if it's a good one. It's possible if it's a deep wound that you will have to change the outside telpa and guaze bandages, but don't disturb the Zeroform. In about 5 days or more the wound will develope fresh skin and the Zeroform will basically fall off the wound. At this point just make sure the new skin doesn't get sunburned for a few days.

The reason this works so well is once the wound has been covered in this manner you leave it undisturbed. Changing bandages hurts and prolongs the healing. Don't use Second skin....it doesn't last long enough to work well on larger wounds.
Remember, don't let wounds scab.....scabs last for months instead of weeks. Scabs tend to leave scars

So crashing is a bummer we all agree, but this method makes it about as pain free as it's going to get. In fact it works so well that many times after falling I was up and racing the next day! This will serve you well, but seriously I hope all of never need to use it!

Freddy

Since we're going into riding season again it's best to be preparred. You just never know when you're going to hit the deck. Case in point. Last year on my way to the recumbent retreat in Oregon I stopped off in Grants pass and did some shopping. They had this great pharmacy there that had all of the products I use in dressing road rash wounds so I purchased everything I might need just in case I crashed....well guess what? I managed to crash myself and boy am I glad I was preparred. It's bad enough crashing anywhwere, but it's always worse when you're on the road. So preparred yourself.

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Registered: Apr 2003
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Freddy,
I was told not to use hydrogen peroxide because it kills good skin cells and thus slows down the healing process.
Howard
Napa, CA

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Howard Gilbert

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Someone gave you some bum info there Howard. The fact is it promotes healing.

I still want to come up to Napa and do a ride with you sometime.

Freddy

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Freddy, a Google search for hydrogen peroxide and healing produced similar results from different medical sites.
I'd enjoy riding with you here in Napa
Howard
A strong solution of hydrogen peroxide has been historically used clinically to disinfect wounds. While such an approach may be effective in disinfecting, hydrogen peroxide at that strength may hurt newborn regenerating tissue. The study showed that too much hydrogen peroxide can be damaging to a wound.

Hydrogen peroxide is less used now as a debriding agent than in the past. When hydrogen peroxide is applied to a wound it combines with catalase produced in the tissues and decomposes into oxygen and water, producing effervescence (Potter and Perry, 1993). The rationale was that this helps to loosen materials that might hinder wound recovery and enables them to be washed off more readily. Six-percent w/v hydrogen peroxide (known as ' 20 volume' solution) liberates twenty times its own volume of oxygen upon decomposition (Thomas, 1990a), and is generally diluted 1 in 3 for the irrigation of wounds. The release of oxygen also kills some anaerobic bacteria such as the tetanus bacillus or Escherichia coli that might otherwise infect the wound. This anti-microbial action of hydrogen peroxide can be amplified 100-fold by the addition of L-cysteine (Berglin et al, 1982).

The problem with hydrogen peroxide and some other traditional debriding agents is that they also damage the healthy cells (keratinocytes and fibroblasts) that are needed for wound healing and inhibit their necessary migration into the damaged area (Tatnall, Leigh, and Gibson, 1990; Tatnall, Leigh, and Gibson, 1991; O'Toole, Goel, and Woodley, 1996). In current practice the emphasis has moved away from the use of cytotoxic materials to those which promote healing, including the use of natural signalling molecules such as platelet-derived growth factor (Higgins and Ashry, 1995). In the British National Formulary (1996) hydrogen peroxide is now listed under "Astringents, oxidisers and dyes", and not as a desloughing agent.

The application of hydrogen peroxide has been replaced with the use of saline wash, substances such as Debrisan and Intrasite Gel for the removal of necrotic tissue, and the application of hydrogel dressings such as Granuflex. Varidase is a desloughing agent with wound cleansing properties, and contains streptokinase and streptodornase (Thomas, 1990b).

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Howard Gilbert

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I hate to disagre with Freddy because I really appreciate all the advise as a newbie older rider. However, when I recently busted my hand with a deep cut from a dirty crank the emergency room physician emphasised that HP is no longer used to clean out a wound because it kills good cells. He cleaned the wound with saline solution and put in stiches. Now its all healed and hardly shows any scar. Jim

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I guess you use what you want. I'll stick to HP. For whatever it's worth, when you have fresh road rash, you don't have fresh regenerating skin yet. And I'm no medical Dr, but my father was a prominent neurosurgeon and my mother a trama nurse. After hundreds of bouts with the pavement I find it works best. I'm not sure why HP has recieved such a bad rap, but I've used many products to clean wounds and it seems to work the best

Freddy

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I just read one of the best articles on caring for road rash at

Dealing with Road Rash

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David
GRR

Last edited by Donnercruz on 05-14-2006 at 10:16 AM

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Freddy,
It's a good topic, thanks for bringing it up. It's always better to be prepared for the worst. Which reminds me that here in earthquake country I need to check the batteries in my flashlights.
So it looks like you're up pretty late posting on this site and thinking about bikes. I'm looking forward to seeing some wonderful projects coming out of the factory.
Howard

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Howard Gilbert

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FWIW, I forwarded Freddy Rx to my brother-in-law doctor. Mainly because he is a cyclists.

The day he read and printed it out, he was leaving his office and across the hall was a doctor whose speciality was injuries such as road rash and more critical ones such as burns. They chatted a bit and then Gary asked him what he thought about this a treatment.

The gist of it is the doctor approved of it. Said HP is probably not optimum; but OK for the first couple days. Especially OK in an otherwise healthy person.

Basically what I got from the discussion is that everyone, even doctors, have there own different favorites and that all will give you a 98% solution.

However, different antibotics, dilution and cleaning solutions, etc. just optimise the final 2% of an otherwise perfectly exceptable solution.

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2001 Tour Easy (w/ bent frame...no, not a recumbent frame...a bent or damaged frame.)
2006 Gold Rush
Las Vegas, NV

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Above is the first aid road rash care thread. I did edit it a bit. One thing to note is that after the initial cleansing of the wound with a diluted hydrogen peroxide solution you won't have to use HP again or change bandages.

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