Dressings For Surgical Wounds

Wound dressings are primarily used to support, encourage and promote healing of a wound. Wound dressings achieve this by making available a moist surrounding to the surgical wound and by shielding the wound from an injury or any potentially harmful agent.

For surgical wounds that are closed, the main function of the dressing is that it absorbs blood or haemoserous fluid in the healing phase right after an operation (immediate postoperative phase).

Today we can find various types of surgical wound dressings in the market. People usually choose between different types of surgical wound dressings based on cost or personal preference. Commonly you will find people using dressings that are simple, low-adherent island dressings.

It is however, necessary to take care when buying a surgical wound dressing that has adhesive. This is because adhesives can sometimes cause an allergic reaction to patients with sensitive skin.

Although there are advanced dressings available it is possible that these dressings might cause blistering when applied under tension or over a joint. Movement of the joint can cause friction between skin and dressing resulting in blisters.

Most importantly dressings should be chosen based on the needs of the patient. For example, if a patient needs to have the dressing on for more than twenty four hours, a water/shower proof dressing will be suitable, unlike for a patient who only needs a dressing for a few hours.

Personal preference also plays a role in deciding for how long a dressing should be placed over the surgical wound or how frequently the dressing should be changed. Some people prefer to leave the wound exposed from the moment of closure, while others expose them after twenty four hours. Yet there are others that leave the dressing on the wound till it has healed completely and stitches/clips/staples etc. are removed.

It is however recommended that the dressings that are applied when the patient is in the operation theater should not be touched unless the dressing becomes stained by discharge or there are clinical signs of infection or there are signs of systemic infection.

According to Chrintz et al, it is not at all necessary to dress a closed surgical wound after forty eight hours. It is however, preferred by certain patients that their wounds are kept dressed.

When one is aiming for open surgical wounds healing by secondary intention, the wound should be dressed according to size, depth and position.

It is however unfortunate that a lot of surgeons choose to use gauze-based dressings in theatre, which causes a lot of pain when removed and completely adheres to and becomes a part of the healing tissue.