Emergency Care

Preventing complications from a puncture wound

A puncture wound is a break in the skin from a pointed, slender object, such as a nail or knife. The object penetrates the skin and may be deep enough to involve fat, muscle and bone. It’s different from a cut that slices or tears the skin open, like a gash.

Puncture wounds don’t always look serious, but they can create serious complications such as infection of the skin, bone or blood. Seek immediate wound care at Goshen Hospital Emergency Department for this injury. By cleaning and examining the affected area, we can help prevent a puncture wound infection.

Call 911 or come to our emergency room on High Park Avenue to find expert treatment for a puncture wound in Goshen, IN.

Do I have a deep puncture wound?

Unless the object punctures a major blood vessel, you may not have a lot of external bleeding with a puncture wound. It can simply appear as a hole in the skin. Though, you may be bleeding internally causing skin discoloration.

It can be difficult to identify a deep puncture wound just by looking it. As a result, puncture wounds often mask serious internal injuries. This is why it’s important to see a doctor as soon as possible. He or she can probe the wound to determine its depth and find any debris that entered the wound with the object, such as dirt.

Puncture wound treatment at our emergency room

At Goshen Hospital Emergency Department, our emergency physicians and nurses thoroughly clean your wound and remove any debris. We may perform X-rays to check the wound for fragments of foreign objects and to see whether any bones were damaged. You may also need a tetanus shot, depending on the date of your last one. Since infection is a common complication, your provider may prescribe antibiotics.

If your puncture wound doesn’t heal properly, see an expert at Goshen Wound & Hyperbaric Center. Our experts can provide advanced treatments with an integrated approach.

Goshen Hospital Emergency Department serves Elkhart County by treating broken skin and deep wounds with puncture wound care in Goshen, IN.