What is Serosanguinous?

Serosanguinous. Serosanguineous means contains or relates to both blood and the liquid part of blood (serum). It usually refers to fluids collected from or leaving the body. For example, fluid leaving a wound that is serosanguineous is yellowish with small amounts of blood.

What does Serosanguineous drainage mean?

A wound draining fluid with both serum and red blood cells — serosanguinous drainage — could mean that capillaries have been damaged. Capillaries are the smallest blood vessels in your body. Capillaries close to the surface of the skin can be easily injured when the dressing on a wound is changed.

What is the difference between Serosanguinous and Sanguineous?

Serosanguinous drainage may also appear more red, indicating an active bleed, open wound, or hemorrhage. Sanguineous drainage: Fresh blood that comes out of the wound that is normally seen during the inflammatory phase of wound healing. It reduces gradually with time and stops in most cases after a few hours.

What causes Serosanguinous fluid?

Causes of serosanguineous drainage

Old drainage may dry and attach to the dressing or bandage and damage the capillaries close to the skin when it is pulled off. Injuries that require a person to change their dressings regularly may produce more serosanguineous drainage, though this can happen in wounds of any size.

What are the 4 types of wound drainage?

Drainage can be (1) serous (clear and thin; may be present in a healthy, healing wound), (2) serosanguineous (containing blood; may also be present in a healthy, healing wound), (3) sanguineous (primarily blood), or (4) purulent (thick, white, and pus-like; may be indicative of infection and should be cultured).

Types of Wound Drainage

What is the difference between serous and Serosanguinous drainage?

Serosanguineous fluid is the most common type of exudate secreted by wounds in comparison to serous, sanguineous, and purulent drainage. Serous drainage is a clear, thin, and watery exudate that typically appears during the inflammatory stage of wound healing.

What color is Sanguineous drainage?

Sanguineous drainage is composed primarily of fresh blood, so it is bright red in color and has a syrup-like consistency. As blood begins to clot, the exudate turns to a deep red color.

What does Sanguineous fluid look like?

Sanguineous drainage is bright red and somewhat thick in consistency; some compare it to the consistency of syrup. It can be seen during angiogenesis in both full-thickness wounds and deep partial-thickness wounds.

What is Serosanguinous exudate?

Serosanguinous drainage is the most common type of exudate that is seen in wounds. It is thin, pink, and watery in presentation. Purulent drainage is milky, typically thicker in consistency, and can be gray, green, or yellow in appearance. If the fluid becomes very thick, this can be a sign of infection.

What color should wound drainage be?

Normal wounds have normal drainage—it's clear or there is a little bit of blood or yellow color. The amount of drainage, and the amount of blood in it, should lessen as the wound heals. Abnormal wounds look angry and have angry drainage. They get worse—more tender, more drainage, more bleeding, more swelling.

How do you tell if a wound is healing or infected?

After the initial discharge of a bit of pus and blood, your wound should be clear. If the discharge continues through the wound healing process and begins to smell bad or have discoloration, it's probably a sign of infection.

What's purulent drainage?

Purulent drainage is a sign of infection. It's a white, yellow, or brown fluid and might be slightly thick in texture. It's made up of white blood cells trying to fight the infection, plus the residue from any bacteria pushed out of the wound.

What color should a healing wound be?

Healthy granulation tissue is pink in colour and is an indicator of healing. Unhealthy granulation is dark red in colour, often bleeds on contact, and may indicate the presence of wound infection. Such wounds should be cultured and treated in the light of microbiological results.

Why is my wound pink?

Once the scab forms, your body's immune system starts to protect the wound from infection. The wound becomes slightly swollen, red or pink, and tender. You also may see some clear fluid oozing from the wound. This fluid helps clean the area.

What are the 4 stages of wound healing?

What does infected wound look like?

The surrounding area becomes red, and this area gets larger over time. The area surrounding the wound becomes swollen, tender to the touch, or painful. The wound weeps off-color or odorous fluid; this pus may be yellow, greenish, or cloudy. Red streaks spread out from the site of the wound.

What is Slough in a wound?

Slough refers to the yellow/white material in the wound bed; it is usually wet, but can be dry. It generally has a soft texture. It can be thick and adhered to the wound bed, present as a thin coating, or patchy over the surface of the wound (Figure 3). It consists of dead cells that accumulate in the wound exudate.

What are the 3 stages of wound healing?

The human adult wound healing process can be divided into 3 or 4 distinct phases. Earlier authors referred to 3 phases—inflammatory, fibroblastic, and maturation, which has also been denoted as inflammatory, proliferation, and remodeling—and this is maintained by some authors.

What is the yellow liquid that comes out of a wound?

When you get a scrape or an abrasion, serous fluid (which contains serum) can be found at the healing site. Serous fluid, also known as serous exudate, is a yellow, transparent liquid that aids the healing process by providing a moist, nourishing environment for the skin to repair.

Does a wound heal faster covered or uncovered?

Q: Is it better to bandage a cut or sore, or air it out? A: Airing out most wounds isn't beneficial because wounds need moisture to heal. Leaving a wound uncovered may dry out new surface cells, which can increase pain or slow the healing process.

Does redness around a wound mean infection?

Redness Around the Wound

Initially, wounds appear slightly red because of the natural inflammatory process of healing, but that redness should gradually decrease in approximately 5-7 days. A deeper redness around the wound that continues to expand and worsen is a sign of wound infection.

How do you know if an infection is getting worse?

What Colour is healthy exudate?

Healthy exudate is usually clear and amber-coloured. Variations from this may be due to a variety of factors as indicated in Table 1. A change in the consistency of exudate can give significant clinical information. Increased protein content due to infection or inflammation may cause exudate to become thick and sticky.

How do you describe how much drainage is in a wound?

How much wound drainage is too much?

Moderate Drainage is anything between 25% and 75% saturation, indicative by soaked dressings. Copious Drainage is the most severe type of drainage, classified by 75% or more saturation. This level of drainage is almost always serious and requires medical attention.