Abstract

Unhealed wounds predispose to excessive antibiotic administration, recurrent infection, discomfort and wasteful spending. This study investigated the causes of unhealed wounds that were not primarily of microbial aetiology. Fifty swab samples were collected from different wounds sites for microscopy, culture and sensitivity. Proper attentions were paid in the process of sample collection to detect any suspected reason for the non-wound healing. Among the non-healing wounds without any primary aetiologic agents were caesarian Sections 10 (20 %), ordinary wounds 4 (8 %), appendectomy 2 (4 %) and ear swab 1 (2 %).The implicated agent for the non-healing of the wounds were remnants of sutures, objects and wrong application of antiseptics. We advocate that those responsible for removing stitches from patients do a thorough job by not leaving any remnant of sutures, patients should be informed about the right application of antiseptics and scanning done on deep wound sites to determine the presence of foreign objects. In this way, the number of non-healing wounds will drastically reduce.