Dressings for surgical wounds.

Abdominal incisions typically are covered with conventional gauze or not dressed at all, since it is commonly believed that dressings do not influence the healing process. Also, patient personal hygiene is not facilitated when gauze type dressings are used, and frequent changes are time consuming and sometimes painful. Following creation of an adjacent enteral stoma, dressings frequently become wet or soiled and sometimes interfere with management of the stoma. These problems did not occur in 89% of 340 patients whose wounds were dressed with a hydrocolloid dressing following colorectal surgery and creation of a stoma. Also, no wound infections occurred in 92% of patients studied. Our findings confirm those reported by others, i.e., the rate of wound infections is not increased when occlusive dressings are used following surgery. At the same time, patients are able to move freely and take showers, and nursing time spent on changing post-operative dressings is greatly reduced. Finally, occlusive dressings have also been found to reduce inflammation and subsequent scarring.