Foam dressing

By Nancy Morgan, MBA, BSN, RN, WOC, WCC, CWCMS, DWC

Each month, Apple Bites brings you a tool you can apply in your daily practice.

Description

•    Semipermeable polyurethane foam dressing
•    Nonadherent and nonlinting
•    Hydrophobic or waterproof outer layer
•    Provides moist wound environment
•    Permeable to water vapor but blocks entry of bacteria and contaminants
•    Available in various thicknesses with or without adhesive borders
•    Available in pads, sheets, and cavity dressings (more…)

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Study shows link between prophylactic dressing use and reduction in pressure injury rates

prophylactic dressing pressure injury

A new study shows a clear association between the prophylactic use of five-layer foam sacral dressings and reductions in pressure injury rates. Specifically, the study looked at the prophylactic use of Mölnlycke’s Mepilex® Border Sacrum dressing in the acute care setting over a six-year period (2010-2015). (more…)

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Flexible Materials Innovations Advances Wound Care

Flexible Materials Innovations Advances Wound Care

The cutting-edge of wound care is a progressively flexible one, where textiles, foams, and films are applied to wound management technology with the goal of synergistic physiological function. These innately intuitive materials underpin the emerging medical solutions that practitioners and their patients are finding more effective than traditional wound care and closure methods. With an aging population more frequently seeking medical care and a surge in diabetes diagnoses, market analysts predict a continuing rise in demand for advanced wound care management products, fueling an annual industry growth rate of 6.4% over the next five years. (more…)

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Innovative ‘Smart Scar-Care’ pad to create a ‘scar-less’ world

smart scar care pad by professor cecillia litsang

An innovative “Smart Scar-Care” pad which serves the dual functions of reinforcing pressure and occlusion has been designed by researchers to treat hypertrophic scars from burns, surgeries and trauma.

Compared with the traditional pressure pads and silicone gel sheets, “Smart Scar-Care” pad has the advantages of both.

It showed good performance in reducing pigmentation and vascularity, improving elasticity and preventing dehydration in a clinical trial. It is more durable and user-friendly compared with the traditional pad (polyethylene foam) as reported by the patients. This innovative design has won the Grand Award and Gold Medal with the Congratulations of Jury at the 45th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, 2017. (more…)

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Fish Skin for Human Wounds: Iceland’s Pioneering Treatment

Fish Skin for Human Wounds

The FDA-approved skin substitute reduces inflammation and transforms chronic wounds into acute injuries.

Six hours north of Reykjavik, along a narrow road tracing windswept fjords, is the Icelandic town of Isafjordur, home of 3,000 people and the midnight sun. On a blustery May afternoon, snow still fills the couloirs that loom over the docks, where the Pall Palsson, a 583-ton trawler, has just returned from a three-day trip. Below the rust-spotted deck, neat boxes are packed with freshly caught fish and ice. “If you take all the skins from that trawler,” says Fertram Sigurjonsson, the chairman and chief executive officer of Kerecis Ltd., gesturing over the catch, “we would be able to treat one in five wounds in the world.” (more…)

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Revealing Advanced Wound Care Market Growth Factors

Revealing Advanced Wound Care Market Growth Factors

At a time when governments are under pressure to reduce healthcare costs, the global advanced wound care market is growing, driven by an aging population and rising incidences of chronic wounds.

Advanced wound care products are typically used to manage complex wounds, including burns, chronic wounds and complex trauma and surgical wounds. Chronic and complex wounds represent one of the predominant challenges to global healthcare systems because they are hard to heal and expensive to treat. (more…)

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Support surfaces

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
Support surfaces are geared for managing our patients’ tissue load and redistributing it to prevent skin breakdown. There are three types of pressure redistribution mattresses available, classified as group 1, group 2, and group 3.  Group 1 mattresses lack a power source and maintain a constant state of inflation.  They include foam mattresses, gel mattresses, and air mattresses.  Group 2 support surfaces, such as powered, low-air-loss, and alternating pressure mattresses use inflation and deflation to spread the tissue load over a large surface area. Group 3 mattresses include the air-fluidized mattress, a special type of powered mattress that provides the highest-pressure redistribution via a fluid-like medium created by forcing air through beads, as characterized by immersion and envelopment. (more…)

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Wound exudate types

Wound Exudate Types

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
What exactly is wound exudate? Also known as drainage, exudate is a liquid produced by the body in response to tissue damage. We want our patients’ wounds to be moist, but not overly moist. The type of drainage can tell us what’s going on in a wound.

Let’s look at the types of exudates commonly seen with wounds. (more…)

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Frequently asked questions about support surfaces

The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) describes support surfaces as “specialized devices for pressure redistribution designed for management of tissue loads, microclimate, and/or other therapeutic functions.” These devices include specialized mattresses, mattress overlays, chair cushions, and pads used on transport stretchers, operating room (OR) tables, examination or procedure tables, and gurneys. Some support surfaces are part of an integrated bed system, which combines the bed frame and support surface into a single unit. (more…)

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Instill instead: Negative pressure wound therapy with instillation for complex wounds

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) uses negative pressure to draw wound edges together, remove edema and infectious material, and promote perfusion and granulation tissue development. The tissue stretch and compression created by negative pressure during NPWT promotes tissue perfusion and granulation tissue development through angiogenesis, cellular proliferation, fibroblast migration, increased production of wound healing proteins, and reduction of wound area. NPWT has been used to improve healing in a variety of wounds, including traumatic injuries, surgical wounds, pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and venous stasis ulcers. (more…)

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Understanding radiation dermatitis

According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 1.6 million new cases of cancer will have been diagnosed in the United States in 2015. During the course of their disease, most cancer patients receive radiation therapy.

Delivering high energy in the form of waves or particles, radiation therapy alters the DNA of cancer cells, causing their death. Radiation can be administered either externally or internally (through materials placed into the body). It’s given in fraction doses, with the total recommended dose divided into daily amounts. Treatment, including the total dose, is determined on an individual basis.

Although improvements have been made in delivery of radiation therapy, approximately 95% of patients who receive it experience a skin reaction. What’s more, radiation therapy commonly is given concurrently with chemotherapy or targeted therapy to improve survival, which increases the toxicity risk. (more…)

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