What is the difference between saline solution and sterile water

Sterile water also plays a vital role in medical research. Normal water if used in laboratory experiments runs the risk of contamination and rendering the results of lab research invalid. The use of sterile water avoids that risk and its role in medical research is invaluable. Is sterile water the same as distilled water? No, sterile water should not be confused with distilled water. Distilled water is created by a process of steaming and condensation, and does not contain any minerals like salt, calcium or iron.

A distinction should further be made between sterile water and saline solution. Sterile Saline solution has 0. In the participants studied, there was no difference between those irrigated with tap water vs. Given the lack of adverse events and the affordability of tap water, tap water should be considered as preferable to normal saline for cleansing of acute wounds.

Caveats : In the Cochrane review studies, there was no standardization for wound infection diagnosis across the pooled data. Interestingly, two studies comparing the use of tap water for wound cleansing vs.

Used with permission. This series is coordinated by Dean A. Already a member or subscriber? Log in. Interested in AAFP membership? Learn more. Fernandez R, Griffiths R.

Water for wound cleansing. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Water is a safe and effective alternative to sterile normal saline for wound irrigation prior to suturing: a prospective, double-blind, randomised, controlled clinical trial. BMJ Open. Is tap water a safe alternative to normal saline for wound irrigation in the community setting?

J Wound Care. Effect of washing closed head and neck wounds on wound healing and infection. Experiments on humans demonstrated that wound temperature drops significantly at dressing changes, mitosis is inhibited and it takes 40 minutes for a freshly cleansed wound to return to normal temperature and three hours for cell mitotic division to restart Lock, Wound healing occurs at normal core body temperature and a body surface temperature above 33 degsC; below this temperature or when it is above 42 degsC, wound healing is delayed McGuinness et al, Experimental studies on dressing episodes in human wounds found that wounds cleansed with ambient-temperature solution mean 29 degsC led to a 2 degs drop in wound temperature, resulting in a mean temperature of In practice nurses should warm a solution to between 37 degsC and 42 degsC and cleanse in an efficient manor so as to minimise a fall in temperature.

A dressing changed daily for one week has the potential to be without mitotic capability for up to 21 hours a week unless due care is taken to minimise this. Maintaining optimum wound temperature helps increase blood flow to the wound bed, enhance the rate of gain of wound tensile strength and increase oxygen tension, which aids wound repair MacFie et al, It also helps prevent uncontrolled bacteria proliferation, thereby reducing the risk of infection Lock, Lack of temperature-recording equipment may be an issue as estimating the solution temperature is not ideal.

This may be a more practical solution to maintaining correct wound-bed temperatures as the cleansing solution is warmed to an optimal temperature before use and this helps to maintain the temperature of the wound bed during dressing changes. This is an approach to decision-making in which the clinician uses all available evidence in consultation with the patient to decide on the option that suits the patient best Muir Gray, Most relevant evidence comes from two studies: Angeras et al and Griffiths et al Subject to a Cochrane database systematic review Fernandez et al, along with four others that were not applicable to this article, the studies focused on comparing normal saline with tap water.

As no bacteria isolated in the water was cultured from treated wounds, the findings may be credible and transferable to practice where sterile water is being considered. Angeras et al studied patients in a randomised study of saline versus water in treating acute traumatic wounds. The findings need to be considered with caution as the younger sample population will not be affected by the many co-morbidities that delay wound healing in an older population.

Not all the wounds sampled in the study would be encountered by every nurse, hence the need for further caution when transferring findings to the practice setting. Bias was reduced as doctors cleaning the wounds did not know which solution they were using. The sample size may not guarantee a national population subset as all wounds originate from one hospital centre, but is much larger than any from any other relevant studies.

The infection rate, judged by wound appearance and delayed healing in the water group was 5. For those cleansed with ambient-temperature saline, the infection rate was Angeras et al concluded that water should replace saline as the cleansing solution of choice, despite acknowledging that the wound-temperature variable may have influenced the result.

Variables are not desirable as they lead to bias and it can be difficult to establish whether the difference between two treatments is due to the treatment or chance Polit et al, The temperature variable constitutes a major methodological flaw that may have led to an increased incidence of sepsis in the saline group Selim et al, A Cochrane database systematic analysis on the two studies also supports the argument that the temperature variable may have lead to higher infection rates in the saline group Fernandez et al,