Medical Dressings and Bandages Key Terms

Familiarize yourself with medical bandage and dressing terminology

Medical dressings and bandages are necessary not only in hospitals and other medical settings, but they can also be helpful to have around any place of business, particularly those well populated or with hazardous working conditions. You may be the person called upon to place the order to fill your first aid kit, or you may be a physician working with these items in your practice or hospital setting. Regardless of your need for medical dressings and bandages, familiarizing yourself with the various wounds that require such coverings, various types of wound care, different kinds of dressing and features of medical dressings will help you better prepare for your next conversation with someone in the field or to place your next order.

 

Lacerations

Lacerations are different than incisions because they are tear-like wounds brought on by some sort of blunt trauma. They are not clean cuts that can easily be stitched. Oftentimes they have to be cleaned out extensively, and different dressing types need to be considered to ward off infection.
Try: The National Center for Emergency Medicine Informatics discusses treatment of simple lacerations.

Wound debridement

Wound debridement is when medical professionals remove non-living tissue from wounds such as injuries, burns or ulcers. This helps speed up the healing process by removing the necrotic (dead) tissue that can delay healing or cause an infection.
Try: Find out more about wound debridement from Life Steps.

Compression paste bandages

Compression paste bandages are used to treat conditions such as lymphedema or venous ulcers and are capable of shortening around the limb after the bandage is applied. This allows the patient not to over-exert pressure during inactivity.
Try: Find out from the Society for Vascular Nursing about the do’s and don’ts in application of a compression paste bandage.

Exudate

Exudate refers to the fluid, cells or other substances that are slowly secreted from a wound via small pores or breaks in cell membranes.
Try: Learn more about wound exudate from the Wound Care Information Network.

Moisture wicking

Moisture wicking is a feature of dressing to help keep an area dry. The wick of the dressing draws moisture away from the wound site or area needed to be kept dry and draws it out to the outer layers as far from the wound site as possible.
Try: See an application of moisture wicking through the V.A.C. GranuFoam Bridge Dressing from KCI Licensing. Zebra Medical also offers dressings that wick away moisture from catheter/port sites to keep them dry.

Calcium alginate dressings

Calcium alginate dressings have an alginate and a silver nylon contact layer. The silver ions provide an antimicrobial barrier that offers bacterial contamination protection, and the dressing absorbs excretions while maintaining a moist environment for healing.
Try: Learn more about calcium alginate dressings from Argentum Medical. It is appropriate for heavy excreting wounds, including various ulcer types, donor and graft sites, trauma and surgery wounds, as well as first- and second-degree burns.

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