HealthInfo Waitaha Canterbury
Caring for your dressings
Te manaaki i ō tākaikai
Important
See your general practice team or go to an after-hours clinic as soon as possible if you have:
- increasing redness, swelling or pain
- leakage or fresh bleeding through the graft dressing
- a dressing that smells bad
- graft bandages and dressings that become wet, or slip down
- fever with a temperature higher than 38ºC, or chills
- any concerns about your surgery.
For donor sites, look out for fluid under the Mefix (white tape) dressing, leakage or a bad smell from the wound. If you notice these, ask your district nurse or general practice team to have a look as soon as possible.
Skin graft dressing
A firm dressing will cover your graft site. It may have a tie-over dressing, which is stitched on to keep it very secure. The dressing needs to stay in place.
After around 5 days you will have an appointment at the Plastic Surgery Outpatient Department. During the appointment, a nurse will check how well the graft is healing. The nurse will take the dressing off, inspect the graft, remove the stitches or staples and trim any overlapping graft. They will also remove stitches from the donor site if needed.
Changing the dressing can be uncomfortable but is not usually painful. You may want to take paracetamol or other mild pain relief about an hour before your appointment. You will be told how to continue caring for your skin graft dressing. Further follow-up may be arranged with your district nurse, general practice team, or the Plastic Surgery Outpatient Department.
Donor site dressing
The donor site is where the skin for your graft came from. This advice is for wounds with Mefix dressings (white tape). If you have a different type of dressing, called an Algisite dressing, a nurse will give you advice about caring for that.
- If your donor site is stitched closed, the stitches will be covered by a Mefix dressing (white tape). Leave the tape on until you see the nurse or doctor to get your stitches out.
- If your donor site is like a graze, it usually takes up to 2 weeks to heal. It will have a Mefix (white tape) dressing against the skin, and a thick gauze pad over that. Remove the gauze pad after 2 to 3 days. Do not remove the Mefix dressing under the pad.
- Your wound might still bleed a little. If it does, bandage or tape a thick gauze pad over the tape dressing for a few days. Keep the gauze pad dry.
- If the Mefix becomes loose or lifts off and the wound is still raw, replace the lifted piece with a new piece of Mefix. You should have received a packet of Mefix (or Hypafix) when you left hospital. You can also get some from your district nurse or general practice team, or you can buy it at many pharmacies.
- Leave the Mefix dressing on until it falls off (you can trim the edges as they loosen). This may take 3 or more weeks.
The donor site will probably be more painful than the skin graft site. You can take mild pain relief, such as paracetamol, to ease the pain. Talk with your doctor about what pain relief is best for you.
Showering or bathing
Wear a large plastic bag secured with tape and a crepe bandage over your graft site to keep the dressings dry.
If you need a shower stool, bath board or non-slip mat, you can borrow them from the ward occupational therapist.
Once you take the gauze pad off the donor site leaving just the white tape dressing (Mefix), you can shower or bathe. It is OK for the tape to get wet. Just pat it dry with a clean towel.
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed September 2024.
SourcesReview key: HISGR-87518
