Yes practical but sometimes contaminated

You should avoid contact with the skin. The swab must penetrate deep into the wound

Usually you should try to get the secretion aseptically, so swabs may not be the first option. Furthermore, you could lose a considerable part of the sample, thus swab should only be done when you have a lot of secretion. This paper may be helpful.

Greetings.

yes these are practical. just look for pathogenic growth.

Wound swabs from traumatic wounds are a waste of time as they are not representative of the organisms that end up causing infection. In addition the infective potential from clean traumatic wounds is overestimated. If you need microbiological assessment if a wound you need tissue samples or pus, not swabs. 

Tissue samples are better than swabs, but it you get a swab you must be cautious that not all organisms present are causing the infection.

It is possible to obtain wound swabs from traumatized wound but need a lot of caution to avoid contamination. Some of the organisms might be present as opportunistic pathogens and there is need for transport medium. Please find the attached it may be useful. Thanks

Article Antibiotic Resistance Profile of Staphylococci Isolated From...

Waste of resources. Wash it out with lots of water and give preventive ABx 

Yes. Just aseptically pick enough material for culture.

True, the swab must be from the deeper part of the wound to avoid the skin flora or the superficial nosocomial contaminants. 

yes these may be used but you have to interpret them as pathogenic growth. Otherwise obtain sample from depth wounds.

Dear Mehroze,

We avoid swabs for culture as much as possible as you will not know what you are dealing with either commensals or pathogens. Hence, it is advised that one takes tissue samples,or bone curettage or any aspirates from the site but not swabs.

Dear  Jharna Mandal  good point but swaps can be taken  easily

Wound/ bone aspirate or curettage, avoid swabs in all tissue injuries. Smear and culture, ask for a description of the flora, leukocytes and their aspects: in or extracellular, then you will know what you are dealing with: contaminants or pathogens. Never forget to refer to fungi, especially in old fractures and to acid fast bacilli.