Puritan 25-800-1PD-50 Polyester Tipped Sterile Applicators/Swabs with Ultra Fine Polystyrene Shaft, 0.095/0.052' Diameter x 6' Length (Case of 500)

Okay, I realize these are made for nasal swabs, but I was using them for pushing packing material in a wound that the wound care clinic also was using for the same purpose. The brand they used was a little bit better made. But this is for an off label use, so I can’t really be critical of the product and how well it works for the intended purpose. But still, here’s my honest review of the product for the reason I was told by a medical professional to use this product.My husband fell and his knee was severely swollen. I took him to the ER to make sure that there wasn’t anything broken or damaged. He got a good bill of health on the knee, but he had a large hematoma and I had never dealt with one of these before.GROSS ALLERT!!! GRAPHIC REVIEW OF WHAT A HEMATOMA ACTUALLY ACTUALLY IS!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! IT’S MUCH GROSSER IN PERSON THAN IN WORDS!!,After we returned home, his knee was severely swollen and they did an ultrasound on it to make sure he didn’t have a blood clot or anything that could be potentially dangerous. However, they didn’t exactly let me know that he had a lot of blood on his knee. They said at the ER it would just be absorbed back into his body over time. Well, two days after he visited the ER I noticed that he had a small ulcer starting to form on his leg. It was about 6 inches from his knee and the lump that they described as a sack of blood that his body would absorb, didn’t absorb. I put a piece of Calcium Alginate over the ulcer like spot and covered it with some gauze. When I removed the piece of calcium alginate from his leg, it pulled out a small hole of skin. I then kind of pushed on it and luckily I had a McKesson surgery pad that are like the same size as a bath mat underneath his leg. This purple like substance that looked like blackberry preserves came out of the wound and it just kept coming out. It looked like a huge explosion of blood and this thick jelly like substance that just would not stop coming out. I took the McKesson surgical pad and my spouse back to the ER. They seemed fascinated with how much came out of the area and they got more out. Finally the same Dr he had seen a couple of days earlier was there and he said that it was the hematoma and he didn’t expect it to find a way to drain, but it indeed did. He finally got as much of the blood and old blood out by using a needless syringe and flushed it out with sterile saline several times until it was just red blood. He said I should have recorded it and put it on social media as people like to watch this kind of stuff. He then set us up with the wound care center and they started using this packing material that looked like a shoe string that had to be kept sterile and they used a similar product as this one to push the packing into the tunnel and then they would wrap it with gauze. This is a nasal swab similar to what some hospitals used for Covid testing. This one is aluminum and it has a swab on the tip. They are sterile and individually wrapped. They gave me a different brand at the wound clinic and I couldn’t find it, but I found this one. It’s basically the same thing they used to pack the wound. The only thing that is different is the tip is not as durable and thick as the ones they used. They gave me instructions on how to do this at home and a few of the similar swabs like these to push the packing material in the wound. It took about 8 weeks for the tunnel to get short enough to just put medicated ointment on the wound area and I was told to stop packing it with the packing material. Now I change the medication and gauze twice a day. I’m hoping that it doesn’t open back up as that is a possibility.There were a few times that they didn’t have enough to give me to last until his next appointment to see if the tunnel was starting to heal properly. It basically healed in about a half a centimeter each week increments. Very slow process and seemed like it was not going to heal very fast. I was sort of leery of the plastic type available as I was scared that it might break off up inside the tunnel area and they told me not to use the wooden type as it could break off, both creating a new problem. I had to wipe the clinic provided ones they gave me a few times with alcohol as I didn’t have enough of these to change the packing process twice daily. I finally found this product and it’s basically identical to the ones that they use. The only reason why I didn’t give this 5 stars is because this brand was more prone for the cotton tip to come off, and it did once, but I was able to get it out of the wound. I know that I was using this for a different reason than nasal swabs, but I think it is possible that the cotton tip could just as easily come off when doing a nasal test. I had one tip come off and luckily I pulled out the packing material and the swab tip came out with the packing. So I was extremely careful with pushing the packing material into the tunnel area and it finally has healed up to the point that I don’t have to pack the wound any longer. The wound clinic is having a hard time finding the ones they originally were using and they said they we’re going to try and get their clinic to order these until they can get the other brand they use.Basically it’s exactly like the ones they gave me for this procedure, but there were times that I had to dab the tip with alcohol and wipe the aluminum shaft and reuse one because I didn’t have enough. These were good for a single use, as were the ones the wound clinic provided me with, but I wouldn’t trust wiping these with alcohol pads and using twice. The cotton tip just doesn’t seem to be stuck to the aluminum shaft as well, so I carefully used these once and properly disposed of them after a single use. Still a good product for the purpose I was using these for and felt better using a new sterile one each time instead of wiping the other ones down and reusing them. Luckily, it didn’t get infected!

Had a small supply provided by the Dr, so happy when I found more of the same on Amazon. Excellent for packing irregular wounds with small areas under the skin.

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Vanderbilt University ENT told me I have some of the smallest ear canals he's ever seen. These help me get the cream he wants in there!

I had been using it for last 3 years for my clinical research