Severe cases of road rash need to be treated by a healthcare provider. However, most mild cases can be treated on the playing field, the road, or wherever the injury occurred.
If the wound is not bleeding excessively and the pain is tolerable, you may also be able to wait and treat the wound once you arrive home. A standard first aid kit likely contains all the tools you’ll need to treat road rash.
First Aid
When confronted with the injury, review steps 1, 2, and 3 below before making a decision to treat road rash on your own. While road rash can look severe and cause quite a bit of pain, it is not usually life-threatening. Don’t let the presence of raw, bleeding wounds distract you from assessing the injured person’s state:
- Stay safe: If a person is injured and becomes unconscious, do not move them. The only exception is if the area is unsafe and leaving them where they are would be a greater risk than moving them to a safer area.
- Treat life-threatening injuries first: Make sure they are breathing and conscious. Address any bleeding that is bright red or spurts from the injury, which needs to be stopped right away.
- Stop bleeding: Usually, road rash oozes rather than gushes blood. A little pressure with a bandage or any clean cloth should adequately control the bleeding.
If the injury does not seem serious enough to call 911, continue with the next steps (some of which may or may not be offered by the dispatcher in the event you do need to call 911).
Rinse the Affected Area
Rinse the road rash with soapy water to help flush any dirt and debris out of the wound. It may help to soak the wound in soapy water before trying to remove any debris.
To do this, you may need to gently brush any foreign material from the skin. In rare cases, it may be necessary to remove debris with sterile tweezers (if possible, this should be done by a medical professional).
Cover the Wound
Put gauze on the wound and wrap it to hold it in place. Dry dressings work fine, but you may want to moisten the first layer with saline solution or sterile water. If you use a layer of moistened dressings, make sure to cover with dry gauze before wrapping.
Tetanus Shot
If the injured person has not recently had a tetanus shot, you may need to seek medical care. The person’s healthcare provider or an emergency room medical professional can provide a booster shot for tetanus—a serious bacterial infection that affects the nervous system and can be life-threatening.