I had an operation recently for an Inguinal hernia. You can
see on the right the scar.
The scar is between five and six inches long and you can see that there is an opening along the scar. The pale colour in the opening is an infection and it hurts like hell. The area around the scar is numb to the touch. It is an odd sensation to have no sense of feeling when I touch the area with my finger but for it to actually hurt when I move.Not sure if this is because the wound is quite deep or some other reason.
I have been taking Ciprofloxacin to get rid of the infection. It is working because the wound above is a lot better than it was. I am a bit worried that even though I have been on the antibiotics for about a week now the wound has not closed yet.
Thought I would leave a comment (I am the medic in Manchester). Hernia surgery is usually classed as ‘clean’ surgery as it is low risk for getting infection, so you probably didn’t get preventive antibiotics before surgery. you have been unlucky i suppose, to get infection. Then the issue is whether your infection is ‘hospital’ acquired or whether you got it much after you went home. Mild infections probably will delay wound healing for a bit, but eventually will heal, but slightly more scar than normal as healing is delayed. The problem is that if you have deeper infection, or there is a collection or ‘abscess’ with pus, then this needs to be surgically drained to allow healing, although its possible, if you have a discharge that it is draining naturally itself. If you had a serious infection, you would probably have temperature, significant local redness/swelling or pain (which you don’t have). Ciprofloxacin is not the best agent for likely causes of this type of infection, but if it is working it is fine. The only other thing is that ‘MRSA’ infection can be got from hospital, and most usual antibiotics are not active, so if the infection gets worse or not healing then see the doctor.