Wound dressings that can be formed in situ offer several advantages over the use of preformed dressings such as conformability without wrinkling or fluting in the wound bed, ease of application and improved patient compliance and comfort. Here we describe such an in situ forming hydrogel wound dressing from gelatin, oxidized alginate and borax. Periodate oxidized alginate rapidly cross-links pr...

P ain is an unpleasant physical and emotional experience that plays a key role in the lives of people with chronic wounds. It is well documented that the majority of patients with chronic wounds suffer from moderate to severe pain for a protracted period of time with frequent exacerbations. Although pain often is associated with conditions intrinsic to underlying etiologies (eg, acute lipoderma...

The design and preparation of wound dressings that redress the protease imbalance in chronic wounds is an important goal of wound healing and medical materials science. Chronic wounds contain high levels of tissue and cytokine-destroying proteases including matrix metalloprotease and neutrophil elastase. Thus, the lowering of excessive protease levels in the wound environment by wound dressing ...

BACKGROUND Wound management is more than the application of a dressing. It requires a comprehensive and informed approach to the assessment of the patient, their wound and their healing environment OBJECTIVE This article outlines a systematic approach to guide assessment and management of chronic wounds. DISCUSSION An international advisory panel has developed a framework for assessment and...

The use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is well established in the management of hard-to-heal wounds. One institution, familiar with NPWT’s capabilities as well as its shortcomings (eg, pain at dressing changes and pain with the maximum recommended setting of 125 mm Hg), sought a viable alternative. A low pressure, negative pressure wound therapy (LP-NPWT) system, using subatmospheric...

Posnett and Franks (2008) have calculated that 200,000 people in the UK have a chronic wound, with an estimated treatment cost of between £2.3billion and £3.1billion per year. Chronic wounds have proven costly to the NHS due to prolonged treatment periods, frequent dressing changes, more nursing time used and the potential for further deterioration (Harding et al, 2007). The challenge of chroni...

BACKGROUND Negative-pressure wound therapy is a technique to achieve wound healing in patients with non-healing wounds of the lower limb; vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy is a technique to accelerate the healing of non-healing ulcers that fail to heal on their own (primary healing) (Plast Reconstr Surg 117:193-209S, 2006). Delayed wound healing or non-healing of ulcers is a significant hea...

BACKGROUND AND AIM Two types of dressing, occlusive and exposure dressing, are commonly used in burn units. A dressing is said to be occlusive if a moist wound surface is maintained when the dressing is in place. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness of occlusive and exposure dressing in controlling burn infections. PATIENTS AND METHODS Two hundred patients with second-degree b...

This cross-sectional international survey assessed patients' perceptions of their wound pain. A total of 2018 patients (57% female) from 15 different countries with a mean age of 68.6 years (SD = 15.4) participated. The wounds were categorised into ten different types with a mean wound duration of 19.6 months (SD = 51.8). For 2018 patients, 3361 dressings/compression systems were being used, wi...

Introduction: The use of biomaterials to improve wound healing after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is not new. Many types of resorbable and non-resorbable materials have been tried as a middle meatal (MM) dressing, spacer, or stent to prevent lateralization of the middle turbinate, formation of synechia, granulation tissue, adhesions and scarring. The FDA has recently approved Chitosan-based n...