When is moist wound healing not recommended

The prevalence of wounds, inconsistencies in assessment of the wounds and the number of wounds contribute significantly to the burden on already overstretched health services. In , 1 Winter demonstrated that superficial acute skin wounds in pigs healed more quickly when covered with a film to create a moist environment, compared with wounds left exposed to air.

This study evidenced that a moist environment encourages faster replication of epithelial cells and therefore faster wound healing.

These epithelial cells migrate across a moist wound surface with ease, but a dry scab acts as a barrier to new cells trying to travel across the wound bed. This work has been widely cited in academic literature since it was first published. It is considered by wound care clinicians to be a seminal publication and will no doubt continue to be referenced. There are of course some caveats for clinicians and moist wound healing may not always be the most appropriate plan of care for a patient.

Clinicians should complete a holistic patient and wound assessment and then deliver the most appropriate option. The concept and delivery of moist wound healing may not be appropriate in the following instances. These studies were compiled into a table and published by Rippon, Ousey, Rogers and Atkin in 4 — you can view the full table and the breakdown of the evidence here. Some of the benefits of moist wound treatment listed include:.

A small scab may initially develop at the site of a wounded area of skin as a natural result of the haemostasis phase of the healing process. When excessive wound fluid is an issue, the normal skin around the wound opening should be properly protected by skin barriers such as zinc oxide, petroleum jelly, dimethicon, or film-forming skin barriers such as Skin Prep, Cavillon or Marathon.

In addition to applying a skin protectant, more absorptive wound dressing material should be used to control excessive wound fluid. However, medical research has shown that the opposite is true, and that creating moist wound conditions will not only accelerate the healing process, but also help to reduce the risk of scarring and scabs. Keep reading to find out why creating moist conditions to heal your wound, no matter how big or small, will repair your skin faster and better - with a reduced risk of scarring or scabs.

See what medical experts already know and why this is the superior method. In order for your wound to form new skin tissue, new cells need to form. Cell growth thrives on moist conditions! The principle aim of moist wound therapy is to create and maintain those optimal moist conditions for your skin to renew itself. Under moist wound healing conditions, the formation of a crusty scab is prevented. This is because moist wound healing promotes growth and migration of new cells and ensures that essential proteins for closing your wound stay where they belong in order to do their repair job.

Wounds that are left to dry in air will always create scabs, which make it hard for a wound to close itself, as under these dry conditions new skin tissue will have a tough time forming. The idea of moist wound healing was born in when George D. Winter discovered that epithelisation, the process of wound closure, would proceed twice as fast in a moist environment than under a scab.

Today, the principle of moist healing is generally accepted in the professional field, where many products have been developed for the healing of chronic wounds via moist wound therapy. Always read carefully and follow the instructions for use or the leaflets of our products. For further information about our products, please contact us via email at Hansaplast Beiersdorf.

Beautiful healing and scar reduction Do you want to prevent lasting damage to your skin? You can, if you choose the right dressing or plaster. You can object to this at any time here. With click on OK, we are using cross-website tools to provide you individual information for marketing purposes via partners also beyond our website. These enable personalised online advertisements and extended analysis and evaluation options regarding the target group and user behaviour.

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