Episode Transcript
Interviewer: What should you do if you get a splinter? I know it sounds like a silly question, but maybe there's something we need to know. We'll find out next on The Scope.
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Interviewer: Dr. Troy Madsen's an emergency room physician at University of Utah Health. And I think, you know, everybody's gotten a splinter at some point in their life. And normally, you'd grab a safety pin or maybe your pocketknife and you just start digging. Is that okay, or is that not so good?
Dr. Madsen: Probably works okay.
Interviewer: Okay.
Dr. Madsen: It hits home for me, because just a couple days ago I was picking up some stuff and got a splinter in my finger. And it's just one of those things where you get a splinter in there, it just drives you crazy. So the reality is you probably don't have to go digging for a splinter to get it out. It will work its way out on its own. It might take a couple weeks, but if you're like me, you get that splinter in there, it's all you can think about because it hurts and it stings and it's like, "I've got to get this thing out." So I probably did everything wrong. I grabbed a thumbtack off our bulletin board and just dug at it and got it out. That's probably not the best way to do it.
Interviewer: Yeah. Because I remember my mom whenever anybody would get a splinter, she'd either take a lighter and the safety pin and burn it, or alcohol. I mean. . .
Dr. Madsen: That's right. You know it's probably best to have something that's at least sort of sterile. So if you do take a lighter and you've got a safety pin or something and just run that over the lighter or, like you said, dip it in some rubbing alcohol. Something like that is going to at least get whatever germs are on there, get that off there.
And so that'd be probably the one thing I'd say is that if you can use something that's at least reasonably clean and reasonably sterile, you're going to reduce the risk of introducing some kind of infection in there. Because as you're digging for that splinter, you're sticking that thing in there, it might go a little bit deeper. It might push something down into the wound. And you don't want to then deal with some sort of a finger infection or something more serious just because you're trying to get a splinter out.
Interviewer: All right. What about, you know, as far as getting it out, do you just start digging? Or is there a method that works better than another method?
Dr. Madsen: I'm guessing everyone has their own method.
Interviewer: Nothing you learned in med school anyway, huh?
Dr. Madsen: Well, having . . .
Interviewer: Or not a procedure you use in the ER.
Dr. Madsen: It is a procedure. You know, we do occasionally have people who come in for that sort of thing. And . . .
Interviewer: Like big splinters, I mean . . .
Dr. Madsen: Usually bigger splinters or much deeper foreign bodies. And those can be just so frustrating because I'll have people come in that say, "I know I stepped on something. I know it's in there." Sometimes I'll use an ultrasound just to see if I can see anything that jumps out on there. Sometimes I'll just go right over the point where they say, "This is where it hurts." And I'll numb it up and cut in there. But, usually, these are much deeper than anything you're going to be doing at home.
So my technique for home is to say, "Okay. I see the end of the splinter kind of sticking out right here. Or I can see kind of the tip of it there." I'll go right in that spot, try and lift up the skin a bit and just open it up along that line. And then, you know, as I'm in there, scrape around with that thumbtack or that safety pin to try to feel it and work its way out. And wash it off really well, see if I can just wash everything out. And it's kind of like what I'm doing in the ER. You know, in the ER, it's a little bit deeper. Again, I'm feeling around with some forceps as I'm going in there, hopefully feeling something that I can pull out or wash out.
Interviewer: And what is the risk of infection, really? I mean, you know, I . . . we don't want to give advice, we don't want . . . but, I mean, is it a high risk, low risk?
Dr. Madsen: I would say, if I had to put a number on it, the risk of infection with having a splinter in there is less than 5%.
Interviewer: Okay. But it is a possibility.
Dr. Madsen: There's a possibility.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Dr. Madsen: And usually, when it's infection, you're going to see a little, sort of a blister formed there, something that has what looks like pus in it. Even then, quite honestly, you're probably okay taking the safety pin, running it over the lighter, whatever to sterilize it, popping that thing open, opening it up a little bit and getting it to drain.
The biggest things I'd watch for, in terms of infection, are the hand. We always get concerned about infections in the hand. If you start to get a lot of pain along the finger or pain that's tracking up into your wrist, that's a really serious thing, because then we're worried about infection actually in the tendons. That'd be the number one thing I'd say you really need to watch out for, especially, you know, if you're digging in there with a pin or safety pin, or you start to get an infection from a splinter.
Interviewer: Got you. But otherwise, however you're doing it is probably fine.
Dr. Madsen: It's probably fine. Exactly.
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