Why is saline used for irrigation instead of water?
In: Biology
Convention. Evidence so far (e.g. [Cochrane review](https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD003861.pub3/full) among others) suggests there isn’t any delay in healing/increase in infection rate when irrigating acute wounds using water vs. normal saline. The evidence could be more compelling so I’ll stick with NS preferably, but if you don’t have NS available you can use boiled/distilled tap water and achieve a comparable result.
You listed saline in your title so I’m assuming I don’t need to ELI5 that term.
Latest Answers