Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026
Assessment of Acute Wound Healing using the Dorsal Subcutaneous Polyvinyl Alcohol Sponge Implantation and Excisional Tail Skin Wound Models.
Published on: March 25, 2020
Can sutures get wet? Prospective randomised controlled trial of wound management in general practice
Clare Heal1, Petra Buettner, Beverly Raasch
1James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. clarshel@hotmail.com
Objective:
To compare standard management of keeping wounds dry and covered with allowing wounds to be uncovered and wet in the first 48 hours after minor skin excision.
Design:
Prospective, randomised controlled, multicentre trial testing for equivalence of infection rates.
Setting:
Primary care in regional centre, Queensland, Australia.
Participants:
857 patients randomised to either keep their wound dry and covered (n = 442) or remove the dressing and wet the wound (n = 415).
Results:
The incidence of infection in the intervention group (8.4%) was not inferior to the incidence in the control group (8.9%) (P < 0.05). The one sided 95% confidence interval for the difference of infection rates was infinity to 0.028.
Conclusion:
These results indicate that wounds can be uncovered and allowed to get wet in the first 48 hours after minor skin excision without increasing the incidence of infection.