Five year old scar on my shin keeps getting cut

All that I can suggest is to keep it clean and put a dry dressing on it but change it regularly, this is because any discharge from the wound won't cause any infection.

With a wound like this I would clean it with lukewarm water with a little bit of salt in. But my favourite is lukewarm water with a little surgical spirits in.

But if you can see the practice nurse at your doctor's surgery.

But you must keep it dry. When it stops weeping then leave it open.

Let us know how you get on.

Hi Gerard,  I think I would go into the surgery and see the Nurse or your GP.  And, cover it with a dressing

I notice the inflammation surrounding the area indicates you are fighting an infection. This needs support not necessarily with antibiotics....but it is the shiny skin and the risen area which I would have checked out...(if the suggestion I'm going to make doesn't work). Ask if there is any lichen involved? Its not poss to diagnose purely visually but can you take loads of antioxidants Vit c and all the vits and mins you can? I would try the following first before visiting surgery...as you have delayed attending for so long...I would cut a clove of garlic in half lengthwise....around the furthest perimeter of the red and infalmmed area...well a way from the actual wound....begin a circular motion of applying the juice. This won't sting and you will feel nothing as the action is well away from the wound. As the clove dries out replace the clove with a fresh juicy one and continue with the action of saturating the surrounding tissue of this wound with the juice. What you want to do ...not necessarily on the same day is to close the circle and to come as close as poss to the wound...all the time assessing that it feels fine to do this and to acclimatise the body to this powerful antibiotic and anti viral. When you have rubbed the juice of two or three cloves generally around the area...you then want to try to home in a bit more...just touch an outer flake of the raw spot with the edge of a piece of garlic...it will prob feel excruciating and you can pull away the garlic but just breathe through the pain and stinging. Keep repeating this tentative action until the juice is seeping inwards around the site of this injury. I have been able to do this on my own and others wounds and to totally heal them by degrees.

That level of infection can become systemic so you have to watch out. You prob realise that this would best have been washed and dressed at your local A and E at the time or GP surgery by the nurse...but you are where you are now. I would try the above technique before going to surgery as they will prob put you on anti biotics and that would have other consequences. So please do be delingent and try the above. By the end of a days work with persisting with the garlic circles..you should literally see the wound begin to tighten up  ...but the other thing you have got to do is to create an area for the release of pus which I reckon you've got forming beneath that wound....but otherwise you need to have the risen area examined as mentioned but first do try this.  Whilst doing the circular motions with the garlic you need to get a feel for whats going on underneath and for where its most puffy beneath the skin. This is because you want to create a drainage site for the pus AWAY FROM THE WOUND so keep wiping with the garlic and I would suggest on the opposite side of the grey scab....which you should try not to disturb...attempt to press and release on an area on the lower opposide side of the scab to create a drawing effect. If you could get an old fashioned poultice that would help...but you can generally get these from equestrian shops. They are used to drain pus from horses legs and hooves but away from the wound do not cover the wound. So mant don't get this and you just get a pus filled wound and a mess. Think accuracy and separation. You only want a small piece...you apply hot water to this poutice dressing and the heat (held onto by the kaolin) draws the pus...hopefully to create an abcess in the vicinity but away from the wound. You can also just keep dabbing your chosen place for this 'pus spot' to begin arising with a cotton tipped bud. ...til you produce a head...then let nature do the rest ...keep dabbing with hot water ...eventually over days  the spot erupts and the pus drains. 'Where there is pus let it out' is the medical principle but this is old fashioned nursing and many have forgotten these skills. If you can at least get a pus spot to form nearby you could have it lanced once the flow of pus begins....but thats what you've got to aim for. To get the drainage process started ....and simultaneously...but sepaterately the wound to heal. These need to be kept separate. Do what you can then go for help once theres movement (if you need to) you may well have a lot of pus solidified under there. Especially after 5 years.

Try the drainage thing first and get back to me....with the cotton bud dipped into fresh boiled water. Keep chucking out the bowl of water, as it cools so quickly, and replacing in the bowl with fresh boiling water ... just the action of dipping a bud into the boiling water and transferring it to your currently unbroken skin ...will cool the water. It needs to be as hot as poss to create a weak point for the pus to move towards in order to exit your body. You white cells will get what you're doing and work with you once you've started!!!!!

I'm sorry I wouldn't try and solve this yourself, I would go and see a nurse or doctor as soon as possible. Skin on shin is very red and shiny which to me seems there's a infection and the skin in that area is very thin.

Gerard, it still looks very red which suggests inflammation/infection and you ought to be discussing this with your doctor and if you need a skin graft, then he would be able to refer tou to a Plastic Surgeon.

Uou ought to see your doctor sooner rather than later. What country are you in?

I'm sorry I know you say this is not infected but there is obviously something not right. It is not usual for a cut or graze to not heal unless you have some underlining medical condition. Are you diabetic? I just think you need to be extra careful with shin area as skin is so thin. I would be surprised if doctor would offer any chance of plastic surgery until it is full settled down and I think they would be very reluctant to do anything until redness has settled.

The inflammatory process is natural and helpful in this situation you want to encourage it and definitely not interfer ...sounds as if your GP agrees? You consulted him about a graft and he was negative? 

I would focus on allowing the healing to complete. You are nearly there. It was the iodine which was interferring.

Normal saline, you can buy from the chemist in a plastic vial, is the best wound cleanser. You don't have to fuss too much if you're not dealing with infection. You can literally just point and spray gently from a distance so as not to disturb the repairing tissues. N/S in this squeezable vial is also good for shifting out any debris that might get in that you want removed...  but really you want to leave the wound exposed now and allow it to dry out and to granulate. The new pic doesn't show any suspicious risen area (as in the 2nd of the two pics) beneath the wound which could have indicated infection....and you seem confident there is no infection and your GP confirmed that?

Therefore the inflammation is a healing reaction alone and not deaings with infection.

As to a skin graft...that would be a very traumatic and painful prcess for you...its really only indicated after burns when healing cannot be completed due to necrosis or an insufficient layer of skin remaining.

As one of the contributors here adds skin on the shins tends to be thin...its the same for horses...honestly they can often get better care than us !!  so if things don't improve tho i see no reason - now you've quit use of iodine - why things shouldn't fully resolve...you could try the plastic skin used for their lower legs. There is also a gauze product that can help to breach areas where skin is failing to heal ...bit I don't think that this is indicated. I would do no more now (except for massaging with garlic in the area since it helps with the curative process). And focus on ways to protect the wound now...eg a a cradle in bed to avoid contact with the bed sheets and maybe shin guards for sport but I would give it the time it needs to fully repair before returning to sport and focus on massaging the area and effluage to get draining going and to promote circulation to the area.

a sports masseuse might be able to further encourage you and it would be a little luxury for yourself after all this time. show them all this dialogue and invite comment and encouragement. i think you're getting there !