Port Incision Healing - Neosporin Information

marjon9 · February 6, 2007

I just thought I'd pass along my story on this in case it might be useful to someone else.

I had my surgery about three weeks ago. After about 10 days the steri-strips came off. The port incision was still a bit open/unsealed, and draining a thin, pink, clear liquid. There was no sign of infection so I figured I'd just put some Neosporin on it, cover it with gauze, and go on my merry way.

Well, the darn thing never would close, even though I kept dressing it and changing the gauze twice a day. The draining actually started to get a little worse. So, I called my doc and asked what was going on.

He said that the Neosporin was my problem. He said that stuff is great for an abrasion or some other surface injury, but a surgery incision is deep, and Neosporin is not the right thing at all. He said it gets in the wound and makes it into a swampy thing that will never close. He said stop the Neosporin, cover it with gauze, and see if it will dry up and close.

Well, I cleaned off the Neosporin and covered it with dry gauze. The draining stopped in about 3 hours, and the wound sealed in a day. It looks great now and I am no longer worried about a port infection.

Moral of the story: Neosporin is great for healing a port incision - NOT!!