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Show Wound dressing keeps air out In the course of a lifetime, the average person can expect to sustain nearly 3,000 minor wounds. Perhaps because wounds are so common, many of us don't seek medical help for them when we should. The variety of materials that have been used to treat wounds in the past ranged from hot oils and waxes to rope fiber and spider webs. Plaster casts were used to treat battlefield wounds in the 19th and early 20th century. Today, doctors know that to complement comple-ment the healing process, a dressing should provide the same kind of moist protective environment that the body provides for itself the epidermis. Some dressings, like gauze, absorb the very moisture that cells need and may stick to the wound surface. Thin polyurethane strips called occlusive dressings retain wound moisture but may cause problems because they are difficult to handle. Now, many of the problems of plastic occlusive dressings are being solved with a new wound dressing called call-ed DuoDerm, developed by scientists at ConvaTec, a Squibb company. Unlike other wound dressings, whose adhesive can be weakened by moisture escaping from the skin or by fluid which exudes from the wound, the new dressing contains hydroactive particles which interact with and use moisture. These particles are embedded embedd-ed in a polymer base which is impervious imper-vious to moisture and adheres well to dry or wet surfaces. It is a combination that allows the dressing to bond securely to the normal nor-mal skin which surrounds the wound, but keeps it from sticking to wound surfaces, where moisture mixes with the dressing to form a soft gel over the damaged tissue. This gel also protects the wound bed when the dressing is removed. In clinical studies conducted on over 400 patients with chronic wounds such as leg ulcers and pressure sores, more than 60 percent of the wounds healed wounds that had not responded respond-ed to any other treatment. What's more, the new dressing, being be-ing impermeable to the air, promotes healing without exposure to atmospheric at-mospheric oxygen, apparently disproving the long-held notion that it is necessary to "let the wound breathe." |