The idea that a wound needs to be left uncovered to “breathe” is a common one. The answer is no.
Here’s why. Covering a wound with the right dressing improves its chance of healing by helping to create the ideal healing environment. Leaving a wound open to the air does two things that work against that: it lowers the temperature of the wound surface, and it dries the wound out. Neither helps healing. The right dressing keeps the wound surface at a steady temperature and keeps the wound moist but not soggy.
The same goes for certain wound types. For stage I and II pressure sores, keep the area covered with a dressing, because this protects against infection and helps keep the sore moist so it can heal. For venous leg ulcers, always keep the wound clean and bandaged to prevent infection.
These can look as though they disagree about moisture, so it’s worth being precise about why they don’t. With pressure sores, the dressing keeps the sore itself moist. With venous ulcers, keep the dressing and the skin around it dry, and don’t get the healthy tissue around the wound too wet, because that can soften the healthy tissue and cause the wound to get bigger. One is about the wound. The other is about the skin around it.
There is a point at which a wound does come uncovered, and it’s worth saying so clearly, because “keep it covered” forever isn’t right either. With closed surgical wounds, at some point during healing you will not need a dressing anymore, and your surgeon will tell you when you can leave the wound uncovered. In some specific cases, a clinician may also advise keeping a wound open, or choose a different treatment. Either way, the instruction to uncover comes from the person treating the wound. It is not a stage you reach on your own by deciding the wound has had enough time.
What varies in the meantime is which dressing. Depending on the size and stage of a pressure sore, you may use a film, gauze, gel, foam or another type. Talk with your provider about which to use.