A Review of Wound Dressing Practices

For decades, the wound dressing was purely presented as-, and provided a physical barrier against external injuries and contaminants - a ‘passive' yet elemental part in wound healing. Today, the suggestion that wound dressing works simply as a physical protection in the wound management sector is only seen as a precedent. Now, wound dressings when applied correctly take on the active role which supports wound closure. Having spent billions of dollars and endless hours poured into research geared toward the development of the latest wound dressing innovations; the current marketplace is more than capable to offer a broad spectrum of products formulated with almost any combination of properties and claimed benefits. As a result, this can be quite overwhelming for numerous wound care professionals. One way to get this situation streamlined is by simply categorising wound dressings according to their principal components: gauze, film, hydrogel, foam, hydrocolloid, or alginate dressings. Dressings within a given category may offer many similar features and can therefore be grouped accordingly. Conversely, since composite wound dressings are a combination of multiple layers contributing more than one function in wound care management, these should instead be categorised according to the clinically predominant component. Antimicrobial agents such as silver or iodine can be permeated into virtually all wound dressing categories. To comprehend the specific types of wound dressing, wound care professionals should be obligated to keep abreast with the latest technological advancement in wound dressing.