What causes a skin abrasion is frictional scraping away of your skin layers. This typically occurs when your exposed skin rubs over a rough surface with some force. And depending on the depth of your abrasion, the wound may cause some minimal bleeding.
Abrasions are often spoken of in numerous terms, such as:
- graze
- scrape
- rug burn
- road rash
- rope burn
- skinned knee
Skin abrasions are a common sports injury because falling on a rough, hard surface is an inherent risk in a variety of recreational activities.
Abrasion wound treatment starts with cleansing to remove any dirt, rocks, grass or other debris that may be embedded. After a thorough cleaning, apply a topical antibiotic ointment to prevent a bacterial skin infection. For quicker wound healing, cover your abrasion for a couple of day with a non adherent gauze dressing to keep it from drying out. And should you experience any abrasion caused pain, then treat your discomfort with a topical analgesic or take a OTC pain reliever, such as aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen.
