Clinical evaluation of a thin absorbent skin adhesive dressing for wound management.

OBJECTIVE

This article assesses the use of BeneHold Thin Absorbent Skin Adhesive (TASA) wound dressings in a large UK primary care organisation. These wound dressings are thin (0.12 mm), breathable, transparent, and are able to absorb and retain wound exudate. This non-comparative evaluation was undertaken to explore the clinical advantages this differentiated combination of physical properties offered.

METHOD

The dressings are CE-marked medical devices, and were used on patients with acute and chronic wounds that were assessed and classified as light to moderately exuding. Clinical performance was evaluated with respect to the dressing's ease of use (application and removal, conformability, mould-ability, rolling and edge-lift), debridement, protection of the peri-wound, wear time, fluid handling, wound bed residue, visibility of the wound, and clinical acceptability. The evaluating clinicians used an agreed audit tool to collect data from case reports to document the progression of wounds of various aetiologies, including chronic and acute, for a maximum period of four weeks. Qualitative feedback on dressing performance was also collected at the evaluation's end, both from the clinicians' and patients' perspectives Results: Some 15 patients were assessed. The wear time was up to seven days in many cases, and on average was 3.9 days longer than their previous dressings. Clinicians perceived that wounds progressed toward healing in all but two cases, where the wounds remained unchanged. Out of five cases where wounds presented with necrosis, all underwent significant autolytic debridement underneath the new dressings. Transparency was a noted benefit from both the clinicians' and patients' perspectives because it enabled continuous monitoring of the full wound bed and peri-wound skin without the need to disrupt the dressing.

CONCLUSION

The dressing was well-received by both clinicians and patients in all fifteen cases. The thin absorbent skin adhesive dressing was found to be a promising new technology that could offer significant advantages to improve the quality, cost, and convenience of wound care. Further work is underway to validate these findings in larger and more homogeneous patient groups.