How long should a surgical wound drain?

There’s no set total time. Some drainage is expected, but contact your provider if drainage is not decreasing after 3 to 5 days, or if it increases or becomes thick, tan, green, yellow or foul smelling.

There’s no set total. What matters is the direction of travel, which turns out to be the more useful thing.

Some drainage is expected. After surgery, one of the jobs a dressing does is soak up any fluids that leak from your wound. Drainage is not, in itself, a sign that something has gone wrong.

What matters is whether the drainage is settling. With wet-to-dry dressing changes, there is a specific trigger: contact your provider if drainage is not decreasing after 3 to 5 days. Drainage that is increasing is another reason to call.

So the question to ask of a wound is not how many days it has been draining. It is whether there is less drainage this week than last.

The other half is character rather than quantity. After surgery, contact your provider if the drainage coming from or around the wound becomes thick, tan, green or yellow, or smells bad. This indicates pus.

Look rather than guess. Pay attention to the color and amount of drainage from your wound, and look for drainage that has become darker, thicker or foul smelling.

One practical note follows from all this. If the dressing is being soaked through sooner than it used to be, that is a change in amount. It is the kind of observation worth reporting with a timeframe attached, rather than describing it as just a lot.

What to watch for

Contact your provider if: drainage is not decreasing after 3 to 5 days; drainage is increasing; drainage becomes thick, tan, yellow, green or smells bad.

Pay attention to the color and amount of drainage, and look for drainage that has become darker, thicker or foul smelling. Noticing a change is the point, which is easier if you have been noting what normal looked like.

Contact your provider about these changes too: worsening redness, more pain, swelling, bleeding, a wound that is larger or deeper, and a wound that looks dried out or dark.

Wound Wizard is general education and cannot assess your wound or your situation. Your own clinician is the right person to ask.

What we look at

  • Examining the wound and the amount and type of drainage
  • Deciding whether the drainage fits the stage of healing
  • Checking for infection
  • Adjusting the dressing or how often it is changed

Sources

  1. Wet-to-dry dressing changes — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000315.htm
  2. Surgical wound care - closed — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000738.htm
  3. Surgical wound care - open — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000040.htm