Postoperative Dressings

Splints

If you have a splint on (hard plaster on at least part of the limb, wrapped in an ACE wrap or bandage), you should leave it on and keep it dry until we see you back in the office.  The easiest way is to tape a trash bag around the limb and hold it out of the shower or use a commercially available act sleeve that you can get in our office, online at Amazon or the like, or at Walgreen's or CVS.

On rare occasions, if I instruct you personally that it is okay, you may trade out of the OR splint, shower, and then apply the velcro splint that you had been wearing before surgery.  This is most commonly done for patients who have had a release for DeQuervain's tenosynovitis.

Common surgeries that require splinting include fractures of the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow or humerus, tendon repairs, joint fusions (arthrodesis), osteotomies, wrist scopes (arthroscopies), nerve repairs.

No Splints

Many surgeries have only a soft dressing and have no hard plaster splints.  Your postoperative dressing should be maintained for a minimum of 24 hours after surgery (the longer the better, though).  After that, you may remove the dressings and get your wound wet in the shower or washing up in the sink.  You should not apply any creams, powders or other substances to the wound until your first postoperative visit.  You should keep a clean, dry bandage on the wound, when not showering or washing your hands.

No submerging the wound in tubs, pools, oceans, lakes, etc.  No washing dishes, cleaning toilets, or preparing raw meat for 2 weeks until the wound heals completely. 

Surgeries that commonly aren't splinted include carpal tunnel release, trigger finger release, cubital tunnel release, mucous cyst excision, Tenex.