So long as you get your nutrition right there’s no need to stop riding your bike. Consuming enough protein ensures the wound heals quickly.
#Road rash treatment skin#
Healing a wound requires the building blocks to rebuild skin and tissue along with the energy to power your immune system to do this job. If you’re unlucky enough to lose large areas of skin, more than one dressing may be required. This is especially useful while riding your bike.Īlginate dressing will keep the road rash moist and promote healing while helping to prevent infection. Tubular gauze may make you look like you’re wearing white fishnet stockings, but it can be worn on arms and legs to keep dressings in place. A soft scab allows quicker skin growth just keep it covered to prevent infection.Ĭlean the wound to make sure there is no grit left embedded in the tissue, and wash with iodine or saline solution to sterilise the site and prevent infection.Ĭover the wound for at least 24 hours to ensure it is kept clean to prevent infection. Research shows scab formation protects from infection but impedes new skin formation. First-degree road rash: Most cases should heal within two weeks with proper care and regular redressing. In the most serious cases, long-term rehabilitation or lifetime treatment may be required. Keeping the wound moist may promote scar-free healing. Healing time and recovery can range between a few days to months or even years, depending on the severity of the injury. The good news is that gravel rash need not keep you off the bike for long, “so long as you observe the above guidelines,” concludes Usher. Inadequate recovery - poor nutrition, insufficient rest - may inhibit healing, as it deprives the body of essential building blocks for tissue repair: “Wounds can lose protein and require adequate nutrition for healing, so maintaining a good protein intake while healing is important.” Training takes its toll on your body, as does healing from injury.
#Road rash treatment series#
> British Cycling launches series of recipes designed to give your riding a boost An iodine gauze will help to keep the wound clean.” Usher advises, “Best practice is to keep the wound covered for at least 24 hours. Silver is anti-bacterial so will stop bacterial growth in the dressing and possible infection. According to the OED it first appeared in print in the Hotten's Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (2nd Ed, 1860).> How far would you go to be a better cyclist?Īs the dressing gets wet, it slowly forms a gel and absorbs liquid from the abrasion. The term is old and is mentioned in Rudyard Kipling's Kim (1901).
Road rash is often termed 'gravel rash' in the United Kingdom. Similarly, inline skaters can reduce their chance of such abrasion injuries by wearing protective knee and elbow pads.
#Road rash treatment full#
Motorcyclists can reduce the risks of road rash by wearing appropriate motorcycle personal protective equipment such as a full face helmet, protective clothing, gloves, dusters and boots. Symptoms may include pain and heavy bleeding. The term may be applied to both a fresh injury and also to the scar tissue left by an old injury. It may also result from running, inline skating, roller skating, skateboarding, and longboarding accidents. Tegaderm - I did not use these There are a lot of forums and comments about how great this stuff is. Road rash is a colloquial term for skin injury caused by abrasion with road surfaces, often as a consequence of cycling and motorcycling accidents. It is made with all of the right kinds of oils (tea tree, lavender, hemp seed oil, aloe vera, etc., etc.) and helps fight infection and reduces scar tissue. Fresh road rash and its resultant scarring one year later