Superabsorbent wound dressings for the management of highly exuding wounds: a literature review.

Exudate management is essential for creating a moist wound environment that promotes optimal healing, especially in highly exuding wounds, where choosing an appropriate wound dressing to handle high volumes of exudate is a key part of the wound management strategy. Superabsorbent wound dressings (SWDs) have been designed to absorb and retain large amounts of exudate. Thus, they are advocated for management of wounds with moderate-to-high levels of exudate to reduce the risk of leakage and damage to the periwound skin. The SWD category contains numerous brands with different structural and compositional designs. Those differences affect absorption capacity of the products, but also affect structural integrity, risk of leakage, adherence to the wound bed upon dressing removal etc. Herein, we aim to provide a brief overview of the clinical evidence and technical performance characteristics of the SWD category, and identify technical improvement areas. Clinical evidence within the SWD category was primarily limited to product evaluations, case series and case studies. With limited comparative clinical evidence available within this product category, we provide an overview of in vitro comparisons of technical performance characteristics related to absorption capacity, fluid retention, structural integrity, waterproofness, and ability to sequester host-derived enzymes and microorganisms. Substantial differences in in vitro performance characteristics in this product category were identified, which may have implications for their clinical performance. With the currently available in vitro evidence, there is no SWD showing superior performance across all functionalities, indicating a continued need for product development within this product category.