Dressings

By Laurie Swezey RN, BSN, CWOCN, CWS, FACCWS We've all experienced difficulty in getting dressings to stay on for as long as we need them to, especially when there are many commercial dressings that could (and should) remain in place for several days before they require changing.

By Cheryl Carver, LPN, WCC, CWCA, FACCWS, DAPWCA, CLTC Whether you are a provider or a clinician, the challenge of wound dressing selection is ongoing. I have been an educator for quite some time now, and have found that the easiest way to teach dressing selection is by dressing category and wound depth.

Surgical site management in the post-operative time frame is paramount in preventing infection and wound dehiscence. It is essential to use practical knowledge in good wound cleansing and skin care and in providing moisture balance in surgical site wound care management.

By Aletha Tippett, MD How often have you thought about using honey in a wound dressing? Never? In twenty years of wound care, honey was always something that could be used – sometimes by itself on a wound, or sometimes with other dressing material used on a wound.

By the WoundSource Editors Moist wound healing is the practice of keeping a wound in an optimally moist environment in order to promote faster healing. Research has shown that moist wound healing is three to five times quicker than the healing of wounds that are allowed to dry out.

By Cheryl Carver, LPN, WCC, CWCA, FACCWS, DAPWCA, CLTC The growing market for bioactive wound care products has been very interesting and exciting to me. I have been involved the past couple years as an anonymous wound panel expert, council member, and consultant for upcoming bioactive wound care dressing research. We will start seeing an increase in various biomaterials, versus gauze and superabsorbent dressing types used globally. Multifunctional-type dressings will also make waves.

By Margaret Heale RN, MSc, CWOCN Wrapping wounds is an art, and hence, it comes easily to some and more difficult to others. This post won't make you a wound dressing artist, but it does provide some tips for good bandaging techniques. The word "bandage" (in the US) often refers to a primary dressing, so "wrap" better describes a bandage that is long, narrow, and may be used to secure a primary dressing or obtain graduated compression on a limb.

By Aletha Tippett, MD How do you know if you are making right choice for a patient? Or, how do you know if you are even making a choice? This is true in the world of limb salvage. I have witnessed too many patients for which the risk of amputation was too much, and they died. But how do you know what the outcome will really be? You never really know, but you can make your best guess.