First Aid · Wound Care
Most wounds are manageable with calm, methodical care. This guide covers the full spectrum — from a kitchen knife slip to a fishhook in the thumb — and the infection signs that tell you when a wound needs more than a bandage.
Bleeding — the full spectrum
Knowing where your situation falls on the spectrum shapes every decision that follows. The same principles — direct pressure, patience, not peeking — apply across the range. The stakes and urgency change with severity.
Minor
The vast majority of cuts, scrapes, and small lacerations. Bleeds at a steady rate, slows with firm direct pressure within a few minutes, and does not soak through multiple dressings.
Response: Clean hands, direct pressure, clean and cover. No need to call 911.
Moderate
Bleeds faster, soaks through one dressing, requires significant sustained pressure. Does not spurt. Still controllable without professional help in most cases, but warrants medical evaluation after bleeding is controlled.
Response: Gloves on, firm pressure, add layers — don't remove. Consider calling 911 if it will not slow.
Severe
Blood is spurting rhythmically with the heartbeat, or pooling rapidly and not responding to pressure. This is a 911 situation. Life-threatening limb bleeding may require a tourniquet.
Response: Call 911 immediately. Full guidance on the Life-Threatening Emergencies page.
The principle behind pressure
Direct, firm, uninterrupted pressure allows the body's clotting cascade to do its work. This takes time — typically 5–10 minutes for a moderate wound. The most common first-aid mistake is lifting the dressing to check the wound before clotting has occurred. That single action restarts the clock.
Apply pressure using your body weight bearing down through the heel of your hand — not just finger-tip squeezing. The depth of the pressure matters. If blood soaks through the first dressing, place another layer directly on top and press harder. Do not remove the original dressing.
The three rules of direct pressure:
Don't peek. Keep the dressing in place. Every time you lift it, you disturb the forming clot.
Add, don't subtract. If blood soaks through, add another layer on top. Never remove a blood-soaked dressing.
Use your weight. Steady downward pressure through a firm hand is more effective than anxious, shifting finger pressure.
Cuts & scrapes
Any break in the skin is an entry point for bacteria. The cleaning step is the most important step in wound care — more important than what you cover it with. Most wound infections occur because the wound wasn't cleaned thoroughly enough, not because the wrong bandage was used.
Wash your hands first
Use soap and water for at least 20 seconds, or hand sanitizer if water isn't available. Put on gloves if blood is present. Your hands introduce bacteria before you've done anything else.
Stop the bleeding
Apply gentle, direct pressure with clean gauze or a cloth. For a minor cut, this typically takes 1–3 minutes. Elevating the injury above heart level helps slow bleeding.
Rinse the wound with clean running water
Run clean water directly over the wound for several minutes. This is the single most effective step for reducing infection risk. Running water physically removes bacteria, debris, and contaminants better than any topical antiseptic.
Clean gently around the wound
Use mild soap and water to clean the skin around (not inside) the wound. Remove any small, loose debris visible at the surface with clean tweezers — only if it comes away easily without digging.
Apply a thin protective layer
A thin application of antibiotic ointment or plain petroleum jelly (Vaseline) helps keep the wound moist and the dressing from sticking. Check for known allergies to antibiotic ointments — neomycin causes reactions in some people. If uncertain, petroleum jelly is a safe alternative.
Cover with a sterile dressing
Use an adhesive bandage, sterile gauze pad, or non-stick dressing sized to fully cover the wound. For a clean cut with edges that tend to fall open, adhesive wound closure strips (steri-strips) can hold the edges together and reduce scarring without stitches.
Change the dressing daily
Replace the dressing once a day, or sooner if it becomes wet, dirty, or loose. Each dressing change is an opportunity to check the wound for early infection signs.
When to seek medical care for a cut
Deep wound that goes through all layers of skin
Gaping edges that won't stay together with a bandage
Caused by an animal bite of any kind
Caused by a rusty, dirty, or contaminated object
Will not stop bleeding after 10 minutes of firm pressure
Located on the face, where scarring matters more
Tetanus vaccination status uncertain or out of date
Any sign of infection appearing in the days after
What not to use
Hydrogen peroxide
Kills bacteria, but also damages healthy tissue and the new cells trying to close the wound. Delays healing. Use running water instead.
Rubbing alcohol directly in wounds
Same problem — effective antiseptic on intact skin, tissue-damaging inside a wound. Reserve for clean skin around the wound only.
Letting a wound "air out"
Wounds heal faster in a moist environment. Covering with a clean dressing and a thin layer of ointment promotes better healing than leaving the wound exposed.
Iodine inside open wounds
Povidone-iodine (Betadine) can be used to clean around a wound on intact skin but is cytotoxic — harmful to healing cells — when applied directly into the wound bed.
Wound closure strips
Adhesive wound closure strips (Steri-Strips or butterfly closures) can bring the edges of a clean, straight laceration together without stitches. This reduces scarring and helps the wound heal in a closed position.
To use: dry the skin thoroughly around the wound, bring the edges together gently, and apply the strips across (not along) the cut. Leave them in place until they fall off naturally — typically 5–7 days.
Closure strips are for clean, straight cuts only. Jagged, dirty, or bite wounds need professional evaluation — don't close them at home.
Tetanus — know your status
Tetanus protection requires regular boosters — every 10 years for most adults, or within 5 years for a dirty or deep wound. If you're uncertain when your last tetanus shot was, ask a healthcare provider. A puncture wound, a deep cut, or any wound from a rusty or contaminated object is the time to check.
Puncture wounds
Puncture wounds are caused by nails, pins, splinters, fishhooks, cactus spines, animal teeth, or sharp debris. They may not bleed much — which is part of what makes them deceptive. A narrow object carries bacteria deep into tissue, and the small surface opening can seal over quickly, trapping those bacteria inside where they can cause a serious deep-tissue infection.
Puncture wounds are also among the highest-risk wound types for tetanus. Rinse thoroughly, cover, and get a medical opinion — especially for anything deep, dirty, or from a contaminated source.
Wash your hands and put on gloves
As with all wound care, your hands are the first contamination risk.
Control bleeding with gentle pressure
Puncture wounds often don't bleed much. If they do, apply gentle, direct pressure with clean gauze.
Rinse with clean water for 5–10 minutes
Run clean water directly into and over the wound. This is the most important step — flushing bacteria out of the wound channel. Use a gentle stream, not high pressure that could push debris deeper.
Clean gently around the wound
Mild soap and water on the surrounding skin. Avoid packing anything into the wound channel.
Cover and seek medical advice
Apply a clean dressing. A puncture wound that is deep, dirty, caused by an animal bite, caused by a rusty or contaminated object, or located on a foot warrants medical evaluation. Ask about tetanus protection at that visit.
The foot puncture problem
Puncture wounds to the foot — especially from nails driven through the sole of a shoe — carry an elevated risk of infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacteria commonly found in shoe materials. These injuries warrant prompt medical evaluation more reliably than puncture wounds in other locations.
If a nail or similar object pierces through a shoe into the foot, do not assume the injury is minor because it doesn't hurt much or bleed much.
Animal and human bites
Bite wounds — from dogs, cats, humans, or wildlife — are puncture wounds with a very high infection risk. Human bites in particular carry a significant polymicrobial infection risk. All bites warrant medical evaluation regardless of depth.
For wildlife bites, rabies risk must also be assessed. Report wildlife bites to local public health or animal control. Full guidance on bites is in the Bites, Stings & Outdoor Hazards section.
Embedded objects
When a large object is embedded in the skin — a piece of glass, a stick, a knife, a piece of metal — removing it at the scene is almost never the right action. The object may be controlling the bleeding. Removing it could cause significantly more damage, hemorrhage, or injury to deeper structures including nerves, blood vessels, or organs.
The goal is to stabilize the object in place so it cannot move, control any bleeding around it, and get the person to emergency medical care.
Control bleeding around the object by pressing on either side of it — never directly on the object itself
Stabilize the object using bulky dressings, gauze, or folded cloth packed on either side to prevent movement
If the object must be covered, form a donut-shaped ring of dressing material around it — never bandage across the top of the object
Call 911 or transport to emergency care immediately
Do not attempt to shorten, cut, or remove a large embedded object — movement in any direction can cause additional damage
The exception
Very small pieces of visible debris sitting at the surface of a wound — a small piece of gravel, visible glass at the wound edge — may be removed with clean tweezers if they come away easily without digging. If resistance is felt, stop. Only remove what comes away with minimal effort at the surface. Anything that requires probing or significant force stays in place until medical evaluation.
Objects in the eye
An embedded object in the eye is a specific category covered in the Eyes, Breathing & Common Situations section. The same principle applies: do not attempt to remove an embedded eye object. Cover the eye loosely and get emergency medical care.
Splinters
A splinter is one of the few embedded foreign bodies that can reasonably be addressed at home — provided it's small, visible, and in a low-risk location. The key word is "clearly." If you're probing for something you can't see, stop and seek medical care.
Wash hands and clean the skin around the entry point
Wipe clean tweezers with an antiseptic wipe or rubbing alcohol
Grasp the splinter as close to the skin as possible — at the angle of entry
Pull out slowly in the direction it entered — not straight up, which may break it
Rinse the area with clean water and clean around the wound
Cover with a clean bandage and watch for infection over the next several days
When to seek care instead
Leaving a small, shallow splinter that you can't remove cleanly is generally safer than repeated digging. A sterile dressing over the area while you arrange medical care is the right move.
Fishhook wounds
A fishhook embedded in the skin is a puncture wound with a barb. The barb makes simple removal impossible and increases the risk of tissue damage with extraction. In most cases, the right answer is medical care.
Always seek medical care — do not attempt field removal
If field removal is considered
For a very small, single-barbed hook embedded shallowly in a low-risk area (the outer forearm, a finger pad), field removal may be considered only by someone with proper training and clean instruments. After removal:
While waiting for medical care
Prevention at the water
Most fishhook injuries happen when someone reaches into a tackle box carelessly, walks through brush with unguarded hooks, or releases tension on a line suddenly. Barbless hooks are easier to remove and cause less tissue damage. Using hook covers when not actively fishing takes about two seconds and prevents most incidents.
Signs of infection
Most wound infections develop over the 24–72 hours following the injury. They don't announce themselves dramatically — they develop gradually, which is why checking the wound daily during dressing changes matters. Catching an infection in its early stage is the difference between a course of oral antibiotics and a hospitalization.
When you change a dressing, spend fifteen seconds looking at the wound and the skin around it. You're looking for changes since the last check.
Increasing redness
Some redness immediately around a fresh wound is normal — the inflammatory response is part of healing. Infection is suggested when redness is increasing after the first 24–48 hours, or when it is spreading beyond the wound edges into the surrounding skin.
Warmth and swelling
The skin around an infected wound will feel warmer than the surrounding area. Swelling that is increasing rather than decreasing over time — especially 48+ hours after the wound — is a sign that infection may be taking hold.
Pus or drainage
A small amount of clear or slightly yellow fluid in the first 24 hours can be normal wound fluid. Yellow-green, cloudy, or thick drainage — especially with an unpleasant odor — indicates infection. Pus inside a wound that cannot drain may form an abscess requiring medical treatment.
Increasing tenderness
Pain that is increasing rather than gradually improving after the first couple of days is a warning sign. A healing wound generally becomes less painful over time, not more. Escalating pain — especially when untouched — suggests deeper infection.
Red streaks — seek care immediately
Red streaks extending from the wound outward toward the body — following the lines of lymphatic vessels — indicate that infection is spreading systemically. This is sometimes called "blood poisoning" in lay terms. It is a serious sign requiring same-day medical evaluation. Do not wait. Go to urgent care or an emergency department.
Systemic signs — the infection has spread
Fever, chills, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, or general illness appearing after a wound injury are signs that the infection may have entered the bloodstream. These require immediate medical attention regardless of how the wound itself appears.
If a person has a wound and develops a fever over 101°F, go to a medical provider or emergency room the same day.
Daily wound check
Is the redness decreasing or increasing since yesterday?
Is swelling going down or getting worse?
Is there any drainage? What color and consistency?
Is the pain improving or worsening?
Are there any streaks radiating from the wound?
Does the person have any fever, chills, or swollen lymph nodes?
A wound that is healing correctly looks better each day — less red, less swollen, less tender. If it looks worse on day 3 than day 1, it needs medical attention.
What normal healing looks like
Days 1–3: Some swelling, redness right at the wound edge, mild tenderness, and possibly some clear or slightly pink fluid. This is the inflammatory phase — normal and necessary.
Days 4–7: Redness and swelling should be decreasing. A scab may begin forming if the wound is not covered. Under a covered wound, new pink tissue forms at the edges.
Week 2+: The wound is closing, tenderness is minimal, and color is normalizing. Deeper wounds may remain tender longer. A scar is forming.
Continue reading
Next in the guide
Minor burns, blistering burns, severe burns, chemical burns, and the unique hazards of electrical injury — including what never to apply to a fresh burn.
Burns guideOr go back
CPR, cardiac arrest, severe bleeding, choking, stroke, anaphylaxis, poisoning, and seizures — the hurry cases with full step-by-step guidance.
Emergencies guide