If you have any injury with open skin, you need to take care of it to avoid infection. Keeping a wound clean, washing your hands before touching it, and following any instructions from your doctor ...

Occasional cuts and other types of wounds happen, and the best way to help prevent them from getting infected is by cleaning them with lukewarm water and mild soap. However, if a wound does get ...

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic skin condition that causes abscesses where your skin rubs together, such as in your armpits or groin. This treatment can result in deeper wounds that can ...

Dear Doctor: My boyfriend let a friend of his pierce his earlobe and cartilage, and both places got infected. He says things will get better on their own, but I’m worried. What should he be doing?

Tunnels underneath the skin’s surface mean yourwound isn’t healing well. Tissue is being damaged, and without the right care, even more serious complications can occur. An open wound is an unsettling ...

Laura Bamford emerges from the exam room after spending about an hour with a regular patient. He’s smiling, and she’s beaming. Actually, Bamford looks relieved. She just drained the patient’s abscess.

A pilonidal sinus is a small tunnel that develops at the top of the crease in the buttocks. Trapped hair around the buttocks crease can lead to an abscess, and a pilonidal sinus may develop as a ...

Wound dehiscence is a surgery complication where the incision, a cut made during a surgical procedure, reopens. It is sometimes called wound breakdown, wound disruption, or wound separation. ‌Partial ...