Originally Posted By: hikermor
"The more widely known antiseptics - alcohol, tincture of iodine, or the mercurial preparations - injure the tissues and should not be placed directly in an open wound." - Medicine for Mountaineering, 3rd edition., p. 96. Thorough irrigation and rinsing is recommended for open wounds. If you are giving injections, either one can be used to prep the site.

Brent Blue, M.D. has put it better than what I can:

"General wound care should start with cleaning with soap and lots of water. Painting with provoiodine completes the cleaning. If soap and water are not readily available, irrigating with the provoiodine is best alternative. For a dressing, I am personally fond of using gauze lightly wetted with provoiodine directly on the wound, with a layer of dry gauze on top -- a so-called provoiodine wet-to-dry dressing. A few studies have shown provoiodine to be irritating and destructive to live cells, but my personal experience is that the wet-to-dry dressing works extremely well for sterilizing wounds and preventing infections."

Jeanette Isabelle
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I'm not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago, but I admire the sadism. -- Wednesday Adams, Wednesday