How to Apply Dressing After Knee Surgery | Knee Arthroscopy Post-Operative Care

Brian Davis, a Physician Assistnat for Dr. Peter Millett at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, how to apply dressing after knee surgery. Following knee arthroscopy, you will have the following incisions. These incisions will be closed inter-operatively with absorbable sutures, and may need to be trimmed two weeks post-operatively. All incisions will be secured with steri strips. These steri strips should stay on for two weeks following surgery. On post-operative day one we will remove your dressing and replace them with op-sites. The patient will be provided with a 10-14 day supply of op-sites. When applying the op-site, there will be a number 1 and 2 on the dressing. Remove side 1 and apply over as many incisions as possible. Then remove side 2. This leaves a flexible water-resistant dressing. These should be changed every other day. At your two week post-operative appointment, the ends of the absorbable suture will need to be trimmed. To trim these, expose the suture where it enters the skin. Simply pull the suture tight and cut at the level of the skin. This will then be repeated at the opposite end of the incision. All of the steri strips can be removed at this time.