A clinician shows how to remove and manage dressings after arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Remove the outer bandage, tape, and gauze the day after surgery, then switch to Band-Aids over each incision site. Change them daily for 3-5 days, then leave incisions open as surgical glue naturally falls off over 10-14 days.
This is an example of a dressing after an arthroscopic surgery. After arthroscopic surgery, you can take the dressing off the day after surgery. You'll see a large bandage. Don't get concerned if you see some color change there. That's just because fluid can kind of come out of the wound. You will just want to simply peel this dressing off. You'll see this large tape. You'll see what are called some 4x4s underneath. And then over each incision site, there'll be a non-adhesive dressing called an Adaptic. This covers the glue and incision sites. You can simply peel this off. You want to peel each off individually. You'll see glue underneath those sites, so the absorbable sutures underneath the skin, and then you can apply Band-Aids to each spot. There'll typically be 3 to 4 incisions after an arthroscopic surgery. The Band-Aids can be changed every day or every other day for about 3 to 5 days, and then you can leave the incisions open. Just like with an open procedure, you just want to leave the glue on and let it fall off on its own. That typically takes about 10 to 14 days after the procedure. There's no need to put any ointment over the wounds.
