Wound dressings Flashcards
How are polymers versatile
Polymer implants
Oral lyophilisates
Pegylation
Transdermal patches
Dressings
wound management
take up 40% of nurse’s caseload in community
England 153 million pounds of prescribing costs of dressings
Types of wounds
chronic or acute
chronic - not healed in 6 weeks
Ideal wound dressing
Provide or maintain moist environment
Enhance epidermal migration
Promote angiogenesis and connective tissue synthesis
Allow gas exchange between wounded tissue and environment
Maintain appropriate tissue temperature
Provide protection against bacterial infection
Non-adherent and easy to remove after healing
Must provide debridement action to enhance leucocytes migration
Must be sterile, non-toxic and non-allergic
Where to find sterile dressings packs (SDPs) info in drug tariff?
Drug Tariff specification 10 and specification 35 (page 37/ 38)
Sterile Dressing Packs
cotton tissue/ wool/ balls feature
Gauze swabs
traditional dressings
absorbsant lint BPC
BNF - cotton cloth of plain weave with nap raised on one side from warp yarns
Non-extensible bandages
Selecting an appropriate dressing
PINK (epitheliasing)
Final stage of healing – epithelial cells spread across the wound
This pink/ white tissue is very delicate so care when cleansing wound
RED (granulating)
Describes the bumpy tissue bed as new vasculature formed (angiogenesis)
Granulation primarily consists of collagen and elastin
YELLOW (Sloughy)(granulating)
Slough is the yellow or white material on the wound bed
Dead cells that are sticking to the wound exudate
If excessive may require manual debridement
What are the Different types of wounds?
- black - necrotic / eschar
(dead tissue usually caused by lack of blood supply - source of nutrients for bacterial growth, needs removal rapidly to promote healing in tissue below, congealed blood can sometimes have the appearance of necrotic tissue) - wounds with signs of infection (heat, pain, erythema and swelling, patient has pyrexia, purlulent drainage - pus discharge, signs of delayed healing and wound breakdown)
Low adherence dressings
- dressings prevent secondary dressing from direct contact with the wound
- tulle gras dressings e.g. Jelonet (cotton and impregnated with white soft paraffin or yellow soft paraffin to help prevent adherence to wound)
Vapour-permeable films
allow water vapour and oxygen to permeate but not microbes and water
ensure moisture to promote healing
film is made of:
polyurethane
Opsite - and made have an adhesive coating
secondary dressing
absorbant dresings e.g. alignates
Soft polymer dressings
dressings w soft polymer
either non-adherent or gently adherent
suitable for use on low to mod exuding wounds usually used on secondary absorbent dressing
alt; absorbant pad
Soft polymer dressings
used to manage hypertrophic or keloid scarring
prescription or OTC
