Hi everyone,

Does it make sense to pack Neosporin (Polysporin in Canada) antibacterial ointment that is ophthalmic (for the eyes) in your small kit (space is a concern, the kit must be readily available in a pocket) Can it be used everywhere on other wounds?

Thanks
François

Keep in mind that some people are allergic to the neomycin in trible antibiotic ointments (which includes Neosporin). That's bad enough on the skin, but if it happened in an eye it would be a lot worse.

Double antibiotic ointment using bacitracin is just as effective without the allergy risk, though I have no idea if it is opthalmic.

There are a couple wrinkles with the naming between Canada and the States. In the US, 'Polysporin' is a double antibiotic with bacitracin and polymyxin. In Canada, 'complete Polysporin' is a triple antibiotic with bacitracin, polymyxin, and gramicidin but no neomycin. More info here.

ETA: I have a friend who is a dermatologist. He says that if you clean a wound well and keep it covered with petroleum jelly (Vaseline), it will heal just as well as if you used an antibiotic ointment. However I need to ask him how this goes if you are in a situation where cleaning the wound thoroughly is difficult.

I tried managing a not too bad dog bite at home with betadine scrub, copious irrigation, soaks, and antibiotic ointment. It worked poorly. Too deep, too contaminated...too stupid.

If cleaning the wound is difficult, the wound might be too deep to be helped by a dab of antibiotic ointment on the top. Time to abort the mission and head back to civilization. Puncture wounds, foreign bodies, ragged wounds, crush injuries and the like may need surgical exploration and debridement, as well as oral or parenteral antibiotics.

Yes, as Glock-A-Roo said, Polysporin and Neosporin are NOT the same formulation - at least not here in the US. My wife is a Nurse Practitioner and she uses only Polysporin on patients because of the allergy/irritation potention with Neosporin (I can't remember if she said it was "allergy" or "irritation", so we'll go with Glock-A-Roo's statement that it is "allergy").

FWIW, Neosporin works fine on me - I have no problems with it. But others do.

Also, my wife said that slathering a bunch of antibiotic ointment on some wounds so that air cannot get to them will actually INCREASE the likelyhood that they will get infected despite the fact that you are slathering them with ANTIBIOTIC ointment. I guess it might depend on the specific bacteria or something. So keep that in mind when using these ointments - they can be helpful, but they are not a panacea.

So true, well said.

I have made good use of antibiotic ointment during long backpacking trips.

The first time was on a case of "barbers itch" a staff like skin
infection that started in a blister under a pack strap. The second was as eye infection from excessive horse poop dust in the trail, combined with soft contact lenses .

I was glad I had it as it took a couple of days to evacuate each
time.

I just did a quick check, and the concentration of the antibacterial ingredients appears to be equivalent between the regular and opthalmic versions. I'm not sure how well the drops will work on a wound, especially if they drain off right away. For a superficial cut or scrape, I think I would prefer an ointment that will maintain contact with the wound for a while, but in a pinch, it appears that the opthalmic version could work just as well in theory. Anyway, for what it's worth...

I believe God made Neosporin. It has been my go-to dope for everything including the dogs nose. After this read, I must now test it in all of the farmsteads eyes.

In the past we used regular neosporin to treat the matting eyes of our outside cats and it always worked. However, I don't think I would try this on people without asking a legitimate medical professional. My advice is to consult your regular family doctor.

It's not just the drug, it's the delivery agent as well. A petroleum-based delivery agent may be just fine for your skin, but not so good for your eyes. While it may not harm your eyes (I don't know this), it may be uncomfortable or not disolve well in tears and you then end up looking through a smeared haze for a while. I would recommend using medicines as they are intended to be used by the manufacturers in cases like this.