Blood blister, pop it, or leave it?

[Drew]

A hard session yesterday at the wall has left me battered and bruised. However the worst 'injury' is a blood blister on my little finger. The skin over the top isn't dead.

My question is whether or not to pop and drain it. I am going climbing today, but only easy pottering.

[dave]

in my experience bloodblisters are generally more painful if you leave em full rather then bursting em. so i'd generally drain it with a pin (sterilise it in a flame first if you want).

[Iesu]

i like to fondle them for a few days, watch them get bigger and bigger and then pop it.

[GCW]

How big is it.
If you're going to pop it you're best deroofing it.

[SA Chris]

Dont pop it, get a needle and thread and draw a piece of cotton through it. Cotton wicks out blood (or goop if it's a normal blister) and it then dries out. Once it is dry, remove cotton.

[GCW]

But it's at risk of infection, Chris.

Personally, if it isn't agony or over a joint I'd leave it alone.  But what do I know? 

[SA Chris]

Yes, there is a risk of infection, but I think risk is relatively small. Statistically, I have seen it done about 50 times (medics used to do it "unoffficially" in army) and never heard of a case of the blisted getting infected (putting a plaster over it is a good idea, or else the thread can get pulled out). Needle shoudl be cleaned with disinfectant of some sort, I guess disinfecting a piece of cotton is impossible. Worked for me, many times.

[magpie]

I don't know about the string thing, never heard that before, but I would definitely pop it with a needle but leave the skin over the top mainly intact, so in effect you have an empty blister but the sore, open area is covered with skin.  Taking the whole top off will make it much more sore.

[slackline]

I guess disinfecting a piece of cotton is impossible.

Nope, sticking it in a pressure cooker for a good hour or so should do the trick, kind of like a cheap mans autoclave.  If you wanted to get really high-tech you could go for UV irradiation, but thats probably beyond most people's budget.

Of course you would have to wear sterile gloves when handling afterwards to avoid contamination.

[Jaspersharpe]

Fuck me this is getting technical for a blood blister! 

I agree with magpie.

[SA Chris]

I don't know about the string thing, never heard that before, but I would definitely pop it with a needle but leave the skin over the top mainly intact, so in effect you have an empty blister but the sore, open area is covered with skin. 

Trouble is that if you pop it and then irritate it again it can reform. Doens't happen if you dry it out with a wick (cotton thread, not string!).

[magpie]

My knowledge is based mainly on normal blisters, rather than blood ones, and generally on feet so maybe it's different for hands.  All I know is I'm not keen on doing crosstich on my body and leaving it there to dry out 

[SA Chris]

Your choice, but it is very effective.

[Drew]

Erm... didn't realise it would get so technical!

I popped it with a slightly disinfected blade (bit of flame action), drained the blood and all's well. Chalked up and climbed with no problems!

[Stoat]

This has puzzled me before. Is it better to leave or rip the skin off and let it dry out and heal?

[Drew]

Well, I found that popping it in a small point, then leaving it for a few days till the top layer of skin dies, then cut it off like a flapper, by which point the skin underneath has repaired itself to an acceptable level.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I'd pop it, get the blood out. If it's quite deep I've had ones that dry out and form a blood 'tattoo'  That is very painful to dig out!

[magpie]

Well, I found that popping it in a small point, then leaving it for a few days till the top layer of skin dies, then cut it off like a flapper, by which point the skin underneath has repaired itself to an acceptable level.

 

I find if you take all the skin off you're left with an open wound which is sorer and can get infected.

[Fiend]

All this talk of infection and sterilisation, wot a bunch of girls.

Bite a hole in it, drink the blood, let the skin heal a bit and bite the rest off.

[dave]

real men will cut the effected finger off by propping an AIDs-blood-splattered piece of broken glass on the knuckle and then hammering it with a brick. then dip the bloodied stump in a bottle of 20/20 stolen from an dead tramp's netto bag, then set fire to it. works every time.

[Houdini]

Real men wait for it to go gangrenous before plunging their arm upto the elbow into a tank of pirahna's (who'll nip it back to the bone) then into boiling crude to cauterize.

[joswald]

I had one recently and I left it and it popped while I was having a fingerboard workout....
Mine too was on my little finger.
Didn't make climbing much different atall.
James

[peterbull]

Ideally you should leave the blister alone as the skin provides a barrier against infection. It will burst naturally by which time the skin underneath will have had a chance to heal.