Cotton Wool as a Surgical Dressing

The development of cotton wool as a wound dressing.

THE use of unwoven cotton fibres, in the form of cotton wool, has only been developed in orthodox surgical practice since the early part of the nineteenth century, although cotton itself was introduced into Europe over 2,000 years ago. Raw cotton, consisting of the untreated fibres of the cotton plant, was occasionally mentioned by writers in the Middle Ages as being suitable (i) for forming pa...

Atypical cotton-wool spots.

Atypical cotton-wool spots in four selected cases of diabetic retinopathy are discussed. The most striking characteristic distinguishing them from typical cotton-wool spots is their size, which ranges from about 2 to 4 disc diameters. They develop after stenosis or a complete obstruction of a first order arteriole at the point at which it emerges from the parent arterial branch. The size of the...

Surgical Adhesive Drape (IO-ban) as Postoperative Surgical Site Dressing.

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective chart analysis. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to describe the senior author's (MNN) experience applying a widely available surgical drape as a postoperative sterile surgical site dressing for both cranial and spinal procedures. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Surgical site infection (SSI) is an important complication of spine surgery that can result in signi...

a used ball of cotton wool as a source of nosocomially-acquired hepatitis c infection

A Used Ball of Cotton Wool as a Source of Nosocomially-Acquired Hepatitis C Infection

BACKGROUND AND AIMS An error involving the reuse of the same ball of cotton wool in stopping blood flow after venous blood collection from five antenatal women prompted further investigation and follow-up studies to rule out nosocomially-acquired blood borne viruses. METHODS The five women were screened for antibodies to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepa...