Redness, Bleeding or Swelling After Skin Cancer Surgery: What Is Normal and What Is Not

The bandage comes off at the bathroom mirror on the second morning, and the face looking back is not the one you expected. The cheek is puffy. There is a purple half-moon under one eye that was not there yesterday. The line of stitches is rimmed in pink. Your first thought is not about the cancer at all. It is: is this supposed to look like this?

Almost everyone who has a basal cell, squamous cell or melanoma removed has this moment, and almost nobody was warned how ordinary it is. Healing skin is loud. It bleeds a little, swells, bruises in colors no one mentioned, and only later settles into a quiet scar.

The real question, the one worth knowing before you leave the clinic, is this: after skin cancer surgery, when to call and when to simply wait another day. This guide draws that line as clearly as the evidence allows, sign by sign.

After skin cancer surgery, when to call: the three signs that matter most

Surgical teams tend to hear the same three worries in the days after a skin cancer is removed: the wound is red, the wound is bleeding, the wound is swollen. Each of these can be perfectly normal. Each can also be the first sign of a problem. The difference is rarely the sign itself; it is the pattern over time.

Redness that hugs the wound edge and slowly fades is inflammation doing its job. Redness that marches outward day by day, feels hot and comes with new pain is more likely to be infection. A few spots of blood on a dressing are routine. Blood that keeps coming after firm, uninterrupted pressure is not. Swelling and bruising that peak early and then recede fit the normal curve; a tense, rapidly growing, painful lump under the skin does not.

That pattern-based way of thinking is the single most useful habit you can carry home. Rather than judging the wound at one moment, compare it with yesterday. A quick photo each morning, taken in the same light, gives you and your team something concrete to look at. It also takes the guesswork out of a phone call: it was this size on Tuesday and this size today is far more useful than it looks bad.

One more principle sits above all of the others. Your surgical team wants to hear from you if you are unsure. Post-operative phone lines and nurse triage exist precisely for the question is this normal? The Mayo Clinic’s description of Mohs surgery recovery, like most guidance on cutaneous surgery, assumes patients will check in about anything that seems off rather than wait for the scheduled follow-up. No one on the other end of the line will think the call was wasted.

What actually happens during skin cancer surgery, and why the site reacts the way it does

Most skin cancers are removed in one of two ways. A standard excision means the surgeon cuts out the visible tumor plus a rim of normal-looking skin, called a margin, then sends the whole piece to a laboratory. Mohs micrographic surgery, used mainly on the face and for higher-risk tumors, removes the cancer in thin layers; each layer is examined under a microscope while you wait, and the surgeon keeps going only where cancer cells remain. The Mayo Clinic notes that Mohs is usually done under local anesthetic and can take several hours, most of it spent waiting between stages.

Either way, the wound is then closed by one of several methods: stitches in a straight line, a flap (nearby skin loosened and moved across to fill the gap), a graft (a thin piece of skin taken from elsewhere), or, for some smaller wounds, no closure at all, leaving it to heal from the bottom up.

The body responds to any of these with a predictable sequence. In the first few days, blood vessels around the wound widen and become leaky, which is why the area turns pink, warm and puffy; this inflammatory phase is described in plain terms in the MedlinePlus article on how wounds heal. White blood cells arrive to clear debris and bacteria. Over the following weeks, new collagen is laid down and small blood vessels grow in, giving early scars their raised, red look. Full strength and the final pale color take months.

Knowing that redness, warmth and swelling are the intended opening act changes how the mirror feels. The question is never whether these appear, but whether they behave.

Who usually has surgery straight away, and who is asked to wait

Surgery is the main treatment for most basal cell carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas and early melanomas, according to the NHS overview of non-melanoma skin cancer treatment. It is offered to the majority of people who have one diagnosed, because it removes the tumor and allows a pathologist to confirm that the margins are clear.

Timing, though, is not identical for every diagnosis. In the UK, a suspected melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma triggers what is widely called the two-week rule: an urgent referral standard under which a specialist appointment should happen within two weeks. That standard reflects a clinical judgment that these cancers deserve prompt assessment because squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma can, in a minority of cases, spread beyond the skin. Basal cell carcinoma grows slowly and very rarely spreads, so it is usually assessed on a routine rather than urgent pathway.

People commonly ask whether a squamous cell carcinoma can safely wait three months. There is no universal answer. Some are small, slow and low-risk; others grow visibly week to week or sit near the ear, lip or eye where a delay makes reconstruction harder. Guidelines treat squamous cell carcinoma as a cancer to deal with promptly rather than a lesion to watch. If your appointment is months away, that is a fair reason to contact the team and ask whether the interval is appropriate for your tumor.

Who is asked to wait? People with an active infection at the site, an unstable medical condition, or a recent change in blood-thinning medication may have surgery briefly postponed. In some frail or very elderly patients with a slow-growing basal cell carcinoma, a team may discuss non-surgical options or monitoring. Those are individualized decisions, and they belong to the treating team.

Is skin cancer surgery major surgery?

By most definitions, no. The Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic both describe Mohs and standard excision as outpatient procedures performed under local anesthetic, meaning the skin is numbed and you remain awake. You walk in and walk out the same day. There is no general anesthesia for the vast majority of cases, no hospital admission, and no surgical entry into a body cavity, which is what usually earns an operation the word major.

That said, calling it minor can mislead people in the other direction. Two things make skin cancer surgery feel larger than its label. First, the wound is often visible: on the nose, temple, ear or lip, where a small defect can require a surprisingly involved repair. Second, the final size of the wound is not known in advance. A tumor that looks like a pencil eraser on the surface may have roots that extend further, and Mohs surgery in particular follows those roots wherever they go. People who expected a small dot sometimes leave with a line of stitches several centimeters long, or a flap that has changed the contour of a cheek.

Recovery reflects that middle ground. Most people return to desk work within a day or two, but strenuous activity is typically restricted for one to two weeks to protect the repair, a range that appears in standard post-operative advice such as the Mayo Clinic’s Mohs guidance. Melanoma surgery can be more extensive, sometimes involving a wider margin or a sentinel lymph node biopsy, a procedure that removes the first lymph node a tumor would drain to; the NHS notes that some of these operations are done under general anesthetic.

So the honest answer: it is a same-day procedure with local numbing, but it is real surgery, with a real wound, and it deserves to be treated with the same care.

Normal redness versus infection: how to tell them apart

Pink skin along a fresh wound is expected. The inflammatory phase described earlier means the edges of an incision will look flushed for several days, and a healing scar often stays red or purple for weeks to months afterward. Neither of these is infection.

Infection has a different signature. The MedlinePlus article on surgical wound infection lists the signs clinicians look for: redness that spreads outward from the wound rather than staying at the edge, skin that feels hot compared with the same spot on the other side, increasing pain after the first day or two when pain should be easing, thick yellow or green drainage, a bad smell, and fever or chills. Infections of surgical wounds usually declare themselves within the first days to a few weeks; the standard surveillance window used in the United States is 30 days for wounds without an implant.

A useful home test is the pen line. With your team’s permission, mark the outer border of the redness with a skin-safe marker. If the color is inside the line tomorrow, it is settling. If it has crossed the line, particularly with warmth or pain, that is worth a same-day call.

Two look-alikes cause unnecessary alarm. Some people react to the adhesive in a dressing with a sharply rectangular patch of itchy redness that exactly matches the tape footprint; that is contact irritation, not infection. Antibiotic ointments can also cause allergic redness in a minority of people, which is one reason many surgeons now recommend plain petroleum-based ointment for wound care. If the redness matches the shape of whatever touched the skin and itches more than it hurts, mention it, but it is rarely an emergency.

Infection, when it does happen, is usually treatable, and treating it early protects the cosmetic result. That is a reason to call sooner rather than later, not a reason to worry.

Bleeding after skin cancer surgery: what is expected and what is not

The scalp, face, ears and lips have an exceptionally rich blood supply, which is good news for healing and the main reason a little bleeding is so common after skin cancer surgery there. A few spots or a small stain on the first dressing is routine. Pink, watery fluid, a mix of blood and the clear serous fluid that wounds naturally produce, is also normal for several days, especially from wounds left open to heal on their own.

Active bleeding is different. Standard post-operative instructions, including those from the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, follow the same script: apply firm, continuous pressure with a clean gauze or cloth directly over the dressing for 20 minutes without lifting to check. Sit upright. If it stops, reinforce the dressing and rest. If it does not stop after that full period, or if it soaks through a dressing quickly and repeatedly, contact the surgical team or go to an emergency department.

Three habits set most bleeding off. Bending forward, so the head is below the heart, raises pressure in facial veins. Lifting or straining does the same. And alcohol, in the first day or two, widens blood vessels. Blood-thinning medicines, whether prescription anticoagulants or over-the-counter pain relievers of the anti-inflammatory class, increase the risk further; most surgical teams ask patients to continue prescribed anticoagulants because stopping them carries its own dangers, and any change is a decision for the prescribing clinician, never something to adjust on your own.

Watch, too, for a hematoma: a collection of blood trapped under a closed wound. It feels like a firm, tender, rapidly enlarging lump, often with tightness and a dusky color, and it can threaten a flap or graft by lifting it away from its blood supply. That is a same-day call, even if nothing is dripping.

Swelling and bruising: why it often looks worse than it is

Nothing frightens people quite like waking up with a black eye after surgery on the forehead. Yet this is one of the most predictable events in facial surgery. The tissue under the skin of the face is loose, and fluid and blood follow gravity. A wound on the temple or brow drains downward overnight into the eyelids, which have some of the thinnest skin on the body. The result is swelling and bruising that appear somewhere other than where the surgery happened.

The timeline is fairly consistent. Swelling tends to build over the first 48 to 72 hours, is worst in the morning after lying flat, and then recedes over the following week. Bruising runs through its color changes, from purple to green to yellow, over roughly one to two weeks as the body breaks down and reabsorbs blood pigments. Wounds near the eye, the nose and the lip swell more than wounds on the back or arm because the skin there is thinner and more mobile.

Simple measures make a visible difference. Sleeping with the head raised on two or three pillows for the first few nights lets fluid drain away rather than pool. Cool packs wrapped in a cloth, used for short periods in the first day or two, can ease both swelling and discomfort; most teams advise keeping the dressing dry while doing this. Gentle activity is fine, but bending, heavy lifting and vigorous exercise all push more fluid toward the face.

The swelling to be concerned about does not follow this arc. If one area becomes tense, shiny, hot and increasingly painful, or if a lump under a closed wound is growing rather than softening, that pattern points to infection or hematoma rather than ordinary healing, and it warrants a call rather than another pillow.

Normal healing or a warning sign? A side-by-side guide

The table below gathers the patterns described so far into one place. It is a guide for deciding when to pick up the phone, not a substitute for your own team’s written instructions, which take precedence whenever they differ.

Sign	Usually part of normal healing	Reason to call your surgical team
Redness	Pink band at the wound edge; scar stays red or purple for weeks to months	Redness spreading outward day by day, hot to the touch, streaking, or arriving with new pain
Bleeding	Spotting on the first dressing; pink watery drainage for several days	Bleeding that continues after 20 minutes of firm uninterrupted pressure, or soaks through dressings repeatedly
Swelling	Builds for 2–3 days, worst in the morning, then eases; may settle into eyelids	Tense, shiny, rapidly enlarging, or a firm painful lump under a closed wound
Pain	Sore for a few days, improving steadily, controlled with what your team advised	Pain that increases after day two, or throbbing that wakes you
Drainage	Clear or pink fluid, thin, no smell	Thick yellow or green fluid, cloudy, foul-smelling
Wound edges	Slightly raised, closed, stitches intact	Edges pulling apart, stitches breaking, graft or flap turning dark or dusky
Whole body	Tiredness for a day or two	Fever, chills, feeling generally unwell

Two notes on reading this. First, any single concerning sign is enough to justify a call; you do not need to collect several. Second, the direction of travel matters more than the snapshot. A wound that is slightly redder than you would like but clearly improving each day is usually behaving. A wound that is only slightly red but getting worse each day is the one to report. The MedlinePlus guidance on surgical wound infection makes the same point in plainer words: contact your provider if any symptom is getting worse rather than better.

What the first days and weeks usually look like

Recovery from skin cancer surgery follows a recognizable rhythm, though the exact instructions depend on where the wound is and how it was closed. The ranges here reflect typical guidance from the Mayo Clinic and MedlinePlus rather than a promise for any individual wound.

Day 0 to 2. The pressure dressing usually stays on, dry and untouched, for 24 to 48 hours. Numbness wears off within hours and soreness peaks. This is the window for bleeding, so the head-up, no-bending, no-straining rules matter most now. Bruising begins to appear.

Day 2 to 7. Once the first dressing comes off, most teams ask for gentle daily cleaning with mild soap and water or saline, a thin layer of plain ointment to keep the wound moist, and a fresh non-stick dressing. Swelling peaks and starts to recede. Redness at the edge is expected; spreading redness is not. Pain should be easing, not building.

Week 1 to 3. Stitches are removed on a schedule set by the site: sooner on the face, where the skin heals quickly and marks from sutures matter cosmetically, later on the back, legs and scalp, where tension is higher. MedlinePlus describes a typical range of roughly one to three weeks depending on location. Deeper dissolving stitches disappear on their own over weeks to months. Wounds left open to heal from the bottom up take longer, often four to eight weeks, and produce clear or pink fluid for much of that time.

Month 1 to 12. The scar is at its most visible around four to eight weeks: red, firm and slightly raised. It softens and fades over the following months, and the MedlinePlus article on wound healing notes that scars continue to remodel for a year or more. Sun protection over the scar during this period helps limit permanent darkening.

Follow-up appointments check the wound and, for melanoma and higher-risk squamous cell carcinoma, begin a schedule of skin checks that continues for years.

Skin grafts and flaps: why the rules are stricter

When a wound is too large to stitch straight across, surgeons borrow skin. A flap stays attached to its original blood supply and is swung or slid into place; a graft is fully detached and must grow new vessels from the wound bed beneath it over the first several days. That difference explains why grafts in particular come with a longer list of do-nots.

For a graft to survive, it must stay pressed flat against its bed, undisturbed, while tiny blood vessels bridge the gap. Anything that lifts it, shears it sideways or lets fluid collect beneath it can cause part or all of the graft to fail. This is why a bolster dressing, a padded pad stitched or taped firmly over the graft, is often left in place for about a week, and why patients are asked to avoid bending, lifting, straining and vigorous facial movement for longer than after a simple closure. The graft’s donor site, often the collarbone area, behind the ear or the inner arm, is a second wound with its own soreness and its own dressing.

Appearance can be unnerving. A new graft is often pale, then purple, then blotchy before it settles; it may look thinner and shinier than surrounding skin for months. Flaps commonly swell and bruise more than a linear closure and can develop a temporary bulge, sometimes called a trapdoor effect, that softens with time and, if needed, gentle massage once the team says it is safe.

The warning signs are more specific here. A graft that turns black and dry, or a flap tip that becomes deep purple or gray and cold, suggests the blood supply is struggling. A collection of fluid or blood lifting the graft, increasing pain or any of the infection signs described earlier should prompt a call that day. Partial graft loss is usually managed with wound care rather than repeat surgery, but the earlier the team knows, the more options they have.

What not to do after skin cancer surgery (and after Mohs surgery in particular)

The list of prohibitions after skin cancer surgery is short, and nearly every item protects against the same three problems: bleeding, infection and a wound pulling apart.

• Do not bend, lift or strain in the first 48 hours, and avoid vigorous exercise for one to two weeks or as long as your team advises. Raised blood pressure in the head and neck is the commonest cause of post-operative bleeding from facial wounds.
• Do not soak the wound. Showers are usually allowed once the first dressing is off, but baths, pools, hot tubs and open water introduce bacteria and soften the wound edges. Soaking is generally discouraged until the wound has sealed.
• Do not pick at scabs or pull loose stitches. A scab is a temporary biological dressing; removing it reopens the wound and increases scarring. Keeping the wound lightly moist with plain ointment limits thick scab formation in the first place.
• Do not stop or start medicines on your own. That includes prescribed blood thinners, which most teams ask you to continue, and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pain relievers, which can increase bleeding. Any change belongs to the clinician who prescribes them.
• Do not smoke, if you can possibly avoid it, especially after a flap or graft. Nicotine narrows the small blood vessels those repairs depend on. Wound healing guidance from MedlinePlus lists smoking among the factors that slow healing and raise infection risk.
• Do not apply unproven remedies. Essential oils, vitamin E capsules squeezed onto a fresh wound, and herbal pastes have no reliable evidence for improving scars and can cause irritation or infection.
• Do not expose the new scar to sun unprotected. Fresh scars pigment easily; shade, a hat and sunscreen once the wound has closed help keep the final color close to surrounding skin.

Alcohol in the first day or two deserves a mention of its own: it widens blood vessels and blunts judgment about resting. One quiet evening on the sofa with the head raised is a small price for a repair that stays where the surgeon put it.

What people often get wrong

“A red scar means it is infected.” Scars are red because they are full of new blood vessels, and they stay that way for weeks to months. Infection announces itself with spreading redness, heat, pus and worsening pain, not with a stable pink line. The scar you dislike at week six will very likely be a different color by month six.

“If it bleeds, something has gone wrong.” The face and scalp bleed easily and often. The test is not whether a wound bleeds but whether it stops with 20 minutes of firm, uninterrupted pressure.

“Wounds should be kept dry and open to the air.” This was standard advice generations ago and has been overturned. Wounds kept lightly moist under a dressing heal faster and scar less than wounds left to form a hard crust; the MedlinePlus wound-care instructions reflect this.

“More antibiotic ointment is better.” Topical antibiotics offer little benefit for clean surgical wounds and are a frequent cause of allergic redness that gets mistaken for infection. Many dermatologic surgeons prefer plain petroleum-based ointment. Follow whatever your team specified.

“Skin cancer surgery is trivial, so no one needs to know I am having it.” It is same-day surgery, but you will need someone to drive if the wound is near the eye, you will be asked not to lift for days, and a face that is bruised and bandaged is hard to hide at work. Arrange a quiet week.

“Once the stitches are out, the wound is healed.” At suture removal, a wound has regained only a fraction of normal skin strength. The MedlinePlus article on wound healing describes strength building over months. Treat the area gently well after the stitches are gone.

“Squamous cell carcinoma can wait as long as I like.” It usually grows slowly, but it is treated as an urgent referral for a reason. If your appointment is months away, ask.

Questions to ask your care team

The best moment for these is before the procedure or at the point you are handed your written instructions, when the surgeon or nurse is in front of you. Write the answers down; the anesthetic and the long day tend to erase details.

• How was my wound closed: straight stitches, a flap, a graft, or left open? What does that mean for my specific restrictions?
• How long should I keep the first dressing on, and what exactly should I do when I take it off?
• What should I use to clean the wound, and what, if anything, should I put on it?
• How much bleeding is normal for this site, and precisely what should I do if it does not stop?
• Which of my regular medicines and supplements should I continue, and which, if any, do you want changed? Who makes that decision?
• When can I shower, exercise, bend to garden, lift my grandchild, swim, or fly?
• When will the stitches come out, and will any dissolve on their own?
• What will the pathology report tell us, and when? Is there any chance I will need a second procedure?
• If this is melanoma or a higher-risk squamous cell carcinoma, what follow-up schedule should I expect, and will lymph nodes be checked?
• What number do I call after hours if I am worried, and what should send me to an emergency department instead?
• What will the scar most likely look like at one month, three months and a year, and what can I do to help it?

One question people rarely ask but should: what would make you want to see me sooner than the scheduled follow-up? The answer is usually a short, specific list, spoken in the team’s own words, and it is worth more than any general article, including this one.

When to call your doctor after skin cancer surgery

Most wounds heal without drama, and most calls end with reassurance. Still, a handful of signs should never wait for the next appointment. Contact your surgical team the same day, or use their after-hours number, for any of the following:

• Bleeding that continues after 20 minutes of firm, uninterrupted pressure, or that soaks through dressings more than once
• Redness spreading outward from the wound, red streaks running away from it, or skin that is hot to the touch
• Thick yellow or green drainage, cloudy fluid, or a foul smell
• Pain that increases after the second day rather than easing, or throbbing that wakes you
• A firm, tense, rapidly enlarging lump under a closed wound
• Wound edges separating, stitches breaking early, or a graft or flap turning black, gray or deep purple
• Fever, chills or feeling generally unwell
• Any allergic reaction: rash spreading beyond the dressing, facial swelling, or difficulty breathing (call emergency services for the last two)

Go directly to an emergency department if bleeding is heavy and will not stop, if you feel faint or short of breath, or if swelling in the neck or mouth is affecting breathing or swallowing. These are rare after skin surgery, but they are not situations for a voicemail.

Between those extremes sits the everyday uncertainty: a wound that looks a little angrier than yesterday, a bruise in an unexpected place, a stitch that seems loose. Call about those too. Nurses who triage post-operative calls are used to looking at a photo and saying that is fine, keep doing what you are doing. When a wound does need attention, the earlier it is seen, the simpler the fix usually is.

Every decision about how your wound is managed, whether a medicine is started or changed, and when you are next seen rests with the team who did the surgery and who know your skin, your pathology and your history. This article is a map of what to watch for; they are the ones who read it with you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 2 week rule for skin cancer?

The two-week rule is an urgent referral standard used in the UK: when a doctor suspects melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma, the patient should be seen by a specialist within two weeks. It exists because those two cancers can spread if left long enough, so prompt assessment matters. Basal cell carcinoma, which grows slowly and very rarely spreads, is usually referred on a routine pathway instead. The rule covers assessment, not the timing of surgery itself.

What not to do after skin cancer surgery?

Avoid bending, lifting and straining for the first 48 hours and strenuous exercise for one to two weeks or as advised, since raised pressure in the head is the main cause of bleeding. Do not soak the wound, pick scabs, pull stitches, smoke, or stop or start medicines on your own, including blood thinners and anti-inflammatory pain relievers. Skip unproven remedies on the wound and protect the new scar from sun once it has closed.

Can I wait 3 months for squamous cell carcinoma to be removed?

There is no universal safe waiting time, and the decision belongs to your treating team. Squamous cell carcinoma is treated as an urgent referral because it can grow and, in a minority of cases, spread; some tumors are slow and low-risk, while others enlarge visibly within weeks or sit in areas where delay complicates repair. If your surgery is scheduled months away, contact the team and ask whether that interval suits your particular tumor.

Is skin cancer surgery major surgery?

Not by the usual definition. Mohs surgery and standard excision are outpatient procedures done under local anesthetic, with no hospital stay and no entry into a body cavity. It is still real surgery: the wound can be larger than the visible tumor suggested, facial repairs can involve flaps or grafts, and strenuous activity is typically restricted for one to two weeks. Some melanoma operations, particularly those involving lymph node sampling, are more extensive and may use general anesthesia.

What are the signs of infection after Mohs surgery?

The main signs are redness spreading outward from the wound rather than staying at the edge, warmth compared with the same area on the other side, pain that increases after the first day or two, thick yellow or green drainage, a bad smell, and fever or chills. Most surgical wound infections appear within the first days to few weeks. Contact your surgical team the same day if any of these develop; early treatment protects both healing and the final scar.

How long does swelling last after skin cancer removal?

Swelling usually builds over the first two to three days, is worst in the morning after lying flat, and then eases over the following week; bruising fades through purple, green and yellow over roughly one to two weeks. Wounds near the eyes, nose and lips swell more than those on the trunk or limbs. Sleeping with the head raised and avoiding bending help. Swelling that is tense, shiny, hot or rapidly enlarging is not typical and should be reported.

What is a typical Mohs surgery recovery time?

Most people are back to light daily activities within a day or two, with strenuous exercise, heavy lifting and bending restricted for about one to two weeks or as the team advises. Stitches on the face usually come out within one to two weeks, later on the body. The scar is most visible at four to eight weeks and continues to soften and fade for a year or more. Grafts and flaps carry longer restrictions than a simple closure.

Is it normal for my eye to be black after surgery on my forehead?

Yes, this is one of the most common and least expected events after forehead, temple or brow surgery. Blood and fluid from the wound track downward under the loose skin of the face and collect in the eyelids, which have very thin skin. The bruise usually appears a day or two after surgery and fades over one to two weeks. Bruising that comes with eye pain, vision change or tense swelling should be reported promptly.

Should I put antibiotic ointment on the wound?

Follow the specific instruction your surgical team gave you. For clean surgical wounds, topical antibiotics offer little added benefit, and a meaningful minority of people develop allergic redness to them that is easily mistaken for infection. For that reason many dermatologic surgeons now recommend a thin layer of plain petroleum-based ointment to keep the wound moist. If the skin becomes itchy and red in the exact shape of the dressing or ointment area, mention it at your next contact.

How long does a wound left open to heal on its own take?

Wounds allowed to heal from the bottom up, known as healing by second intention, commonly take four to eight weeks to close depending on size, depth and location, and can take longer on the lower legs. Expect clear or pink fluid for much of that time and a wound that looks red and moist rather than dry. Daily gentle cleaning and a moist dressing are typical care. Spreading redness, pus, odor or increasing pain should still be reported.

References

• NHS: Non-melanoma skin cancer, treatment
• MedlinePlus: How wounds heal
• MedlinePlus: Surgical wound infection, treatment
• MedlinePlus: Surgical wound care, closed

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.