Pin Site Care - Supplies

Link to Pin Site Care - My Routine is here.
Link to Pin Site Care - Video is here.

Ever since getting my external fixator, pin site care has become a routine part of my life. It is done at least once day, every day no matter what. That it, unless my pins are draining more than normal and then it is done even more often. I all the time I have had my fixator I only missed doing pin site care once, which was when I got a stomach bug after Christmas. Pin site care is an important part of having an external fixator because it helps to prevent pin site infections, the last thing you want when you have metal pins sticking through your skin straight down to the bone. The last thing I want is to get another bone infection simply because I didn't take proper care of my pin sites!

Seeing that I have been doing pin site care for the last three months and how crucial it is to maintaining happy, healthy pins, I thought that I would do a series of blog posts about pin site care. Hopefully these posts help anybody else out there who has an external fixator and stumbles across my blog or clarifies what I mean when I mention pin site care for those who don't have a fixator. This first post will be about the supplies I use for my pin site care.

When I mention pin site care, I am referring to both how I clean my pins and the dressings I put on them afterwards. You can't really do one without the other. I mean, it wouldn't really make much sense to take off an old dressing and apply a new one without cleaning things up first, or to clean my pin sites but then leave them open to the air. Either way, germs could get at the pin sites. It takes me a variety of supplies to get through the entire process.

1) Hand santizer - used to clean my hands before, during and after pin site care. The only substitute it good old fashioned hand washing with soap and warm water, but that it slightly inconvenient when you are already sitting down, half way between a dressing change. If possible, try several brands until you find one that isn't too rough on your skin because it does tend to dry your hands out over time. Also, don't touch your lips/mouth after using it, because it tastes absolutely horrendous!

2) Sterile saline, used to clean the pin sites. The stuff I have comes in a bottle with a little nozzle - I just gently squeeze and the saline comes out. Each bottle can be used multiple times.

 

3) Non-sterile gauze sponges - used to prevent the rest of your leg from getting wet when you use the sterile saline. Comes in a big paper package, like a giant soft squishy cube.

4) Sterile gauze sponges - used to dry the pin sites after they are cleaned with the sterile saline. Two per pack.

5) Hydrogen peroxide and cotton-tipped applicators - used to clean the pin sites. A bottle of hydrogen peroxide is, obviously, used many times. There are two applicators per package. They look like over-sized q-tips but only one end has cotton on it.

6) Sterile non-woven drain sponges, in two sizes: 2"x2" and 4"x4". These are the dressings I put around my pins once they have been cleaned with sterile saline and hydrogen peroxide. Two per pack.

7) Scissors - used to cut the sterile non-woven drain sponges. My scissors come from a suture removal kit, which is sterile. The kit also contains tweezers, which are much flimsier than the scissors, and a tiny bit of gauze, neither of which I use. But I am keeping the tweezers - you never when they might come in handy for an art project! Notice how the top of one part of the scissors had a little curved-hook shape. This is really helpful when you have to cut off a bit of dressing that gets stuck around a pin.

8) Alcohol swabs, used to clean the scissors before you cut the non-woven drain sponges. This makes sense because the scissors, no longer sterile after their first use, would contaminate the sterile dressing, therefore defeating the purpose of having a sterile dressing to begin with!

9) Medical tape - used to secure the dressing to my leg once it is complete. I prefer pre-perforated fabric tape.

10) A nice container - I prefer to keep a week or so worth of supplies in a plastic container where I do my pin site care. Then I top up whatever I am running low on from the big cardboard box that the home care company sends each order of new supplies in. This saves room in the kitchen and generally looks much nicer. I find that it also makes it easier to evaluate what I am actually running low on and easier to find something quickly rather than having to rummage through a whole big box of stuff.

11) It is also helpful to have a small garbage bin or at least a small garbage bag handy so that you can easily depose of the old dressing and empty supply wrappers as you complete your pin site care.

Here is everything together - all the supplies I need to complete my pin site care once:

And that's that for supplies. My next post will outline how I do my pin site care and the one after that will be a video of me actually doing it.