Can I remove dead tissue from a wound myself?

No. You should never try to do this yourself. A provider needs to do it to make sure it is done correctly and does not make the injury worse.

No. You should never try to do this yourself. A provider, such as a podiatrist, will need to do this to make sure the debridement is done correctly and does not make the injury worse.

Never. And the point is not to make the injury worse. That’s the whole answer.

Three things explain why the rule is that firm.

The first is that it is a procedure, not a cleaning step. The skin around the wound is cleaned and disinfected, the wound is probed with a metal instrument to see how deep it is and whether there is foreign material in it, the dead tissue is cut away, and the wound is then washed out. You may need general anesthesia for debridement of a large wound. The healthcare professional should be skilled, trained, qualified, and licensed, and bleeding is one of the complications that has to be controllable.

The second is that some dead tissue should be left alone. Debridement may not be appropriate for dry and intact eschars with no clinical evidence of underlying infection, because the intact eschar serves as a biological covering over the underlying skin defect. Knowing which case you’re looking at takes an examination, not a look.

The third is that there are several methods, and some of them don’t involve cutting at all. They include a whirlpool bath, washing with a syringe, wet-to-dry dressings, and enzymes applied to dissolve dead tissue. The right method depends on the wound.

Cleaning a wound the way you were shown is a different thing, and it’s expected of you. Gently dabbing or wiping the skin with saline or mild soapy water, and removing drainage and dried blood from the surrounding skin, is cleaning. Taking away tissue is not.

What to watch for

You should never try to do this yourself. A provider, such as a podiatrist, will need to do this to make sure the debridement is done correctly and does not make the injury worse.

Don’t rub or scrub a wound. Cleaning should be gentle dabbing or wiping with saline or mild soapy water.

If dead tissue is building up and nothing seems to be happening about it, that is a reason to ask at the next appointment, not to act. A wound is non-healing if it has not started to heal in 2 weeks or has not completely healed in 6 weeks.

Wound Wizard is general education and can’t assess your wound. Your own clinician is the right person to ask.

What we look at

  • Examining the wound and probing its depth
  • Deciding whether dead tissue should be removed at all
  • Choosing and performing the method
  • Reviewing the wound afterwards

Sources

  1. Diabetes - foot ulcers — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000077.htm
  2. Wound care centers — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000739.htm
  3. Wound Debridement — StatPearls, National Library of Medicine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507882/
  4. Surgical wound care - open — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000040.htm